Greb was terrible in training/conditioning

From what I have been able to peice together, his training ethic was much better than he is given credit for.

A bit of a myth built up, and it passed around partly by Chineese whispers, and partly by Greb himself fermenting it to throw opponents off focus.

 

& to improve the betting odds as he used to bet on his own fights apparently.

 

Bobby Dobbs even went as far as to pay a sparring partner who looked like him, to go around the bars impersonating him in the days leading up to a fight.

Nice work if you can get it!

 

Didn't he also fall out of a taxi supposedly blind drunk in front of several members of the press a few days before the Walker fight?

 

I have always heard that "untrained" Greb was a self-perpetuated myth... along with his supposed womanizing.

 

Remember S, usually where there is smoke there is fire...But Greb fought so darn often he seldom trained in the conventional way...Fight ing almost every 10 days Greb kept himself sharp for the next town and next bout ,and gave him an opportunity to nurse whatever wounds on his face he had....The more i think about Harry Greb the more amazed i am. Riding hot trains without A/C to tackle bigger fighters than he, without watching films of his next opponent, winning each bout , riding the train to the next town, tackling the next fighter ,and so on...He must have had cuts, and bruises
on himself, yet persevered in spite of this in a career spanning 300 bouts.
AND in the last part of his career when he was BLIND in one eye, entering the ring KNOWING that one blow to the remaining orbit could render him completely BLIND to his opponent , to the fans, and to the Boxing Authorities, and to his livelyhood...What an amazing man was Harry Greb
the FEARLESS ONE...Cheers..

 

I simply can find no way to keep him out of my Top 3 all time P4P. As I have stated before, his resume from 1919 looks like a work of fantasy fiction. Simply remarkable.

 

I can... I certainly can

 

Where would you rank him?

 

Greb was obviously in great condition.
Fighting 20 - 30 times a year, and more, and winning those fights by throwing "a million punches" over 10 or 15 rounds, is solid proof of being fit.


I believe he was a drinker and a womanizer. That doesn't mean he wasn't in superb condition though.

 

As with most things, the truth is a bit more complex.

He seems to have had a comparativly stable lifestyle until he was widowed, after which he went off the rails somewhat.

I don't see verry much of the wild character portrayed by Fair, when I look at the primary sources.

 

Which of the Greb books is the best?

 

James Fair's book was given execrable reviews by everyone who knew Greb. There are so many falsehoods in that book that one loses count before being even 25% finished. I have an article written by the brother of the great MW contender Leo Houck. Both he and Leo knew Harry well (Leo fought him) and decried the book roundly. The article is scathing, Houck's contempt being so pronounced that he refused to even say Fair's name or the title of the book.

Greb was no big drinker. He trained and conditioned by fighting all the time. He would put in extra training hours when he had a big fight. I have an interview where he said that he knew he had to put in a bit more for fights like Tommy Gibbons, Tiger Flowers and a few others. I'll try and find it and post.