I'll start off even if I posted before...Still thrills me for their significance..In 1945 ,when very young I was introduced to the old time middleweight Soldier Bartfield, in a luncheonette in Bklyn..Soldier Bartfield than about 55 years old fought Harry Greb 4-5 times...Bartfield pklayfully pulled me in close and tattooed my ribs, until my dad pulled me away laughing...Bartfield was real strong for his age...To think I was in close with a fighter that fought the great Harry Greb many times..That is my connection with Harry Greb.. I shook Ray Robinson's hand in 1940 before he turned pro, saw him 4 times in prime ,and shook Ray's hand in 1966 when he was retired, at the Concord Hotel in NY...I therefore have a small connection to the 2 greatest fighters of alltime, albeit a small one..And your non fight thrills ?
I also shook the hand of a fighter that fought Harry Greb, his name was Joe Borrell. Joe also fought Greb 4 times, and depending on what source you go by, he was 1-2-1 by BoxRec. He use to come to some of the Veteran Boxer meetings in New Jersey. Years later they put up a monument of him in Cliffside Park, N.J., and I was the Master of Ceremonies and the main speaker.
Yes Joe Borrell fought young Greb three times...Gus Lesnevich,tough LH champ frm the 1940s, was also from clffside Park, NJ.. I remember Lesnevic steppng out of a truck in NYC.,not long before he died...
