Hagler vs Greb

Greb by decision.

He sounds like a Calzaghe on steroids, and Hagler didn't particularly like awkward speedsters (see Leonard).

 

tough decision tbh

 

Greb beat lightheavies.....and wanted to go after Dempsey. Hagler always stayed at MW, and never took the potential MSpinks fight.

 

Greb surely, an iron clad chin and his windmill style fighting would overwhelm Hagler into a Greb decision.

 

Screw it. Hagler is much more versatile and won't be bullied by Greb's pressure.

Don't bother telling me all the people that Greb beat. I already know.

 

Quick, how many here have actually seen Greb fight? Are their any fights he had on film? No their isn't any. So what are we basing that opinion on? Sports writers from dam near 100 yrs ago. Sorry, at least in my opinion, and seeing other fighters from that era fight, I don't believe Greb, or any fighter from the late 20's on down, defeating fighters from the mid 30's on to the present day. Hagler would destroy a Greb.

 

How would Hagler do against Gene Tunney or Jack Dempsey?

 

Greb beat an ATG heavyweight in Tunney and schooled Dempsey in sparring. I think Hagler is great, but "on paper" Greb has this.

 

I cannot and will never understand comparing a guy who has no film to one who's entire career is is there to watch on Youtube. The reporters may be dead on accurate in their assessment of Greb or it might be biased garbage. Truth is we'll never know.

 

Can't argue with this really. It's frustrating comparing Greb to anybody. We can only go by record, and speculate *shrugs*

 

Extremely difficult to actually make a match up with a fighter that has practically no footage available. Luckily we have fighters record s to see who they fought, beat, lost to and drew with. But of course a record doesn't tell a full story. So it is hard to match greb really, I tend to just go by the surviving record s of men from his time. Not ideal but it's all you can do.

 

Well, let's put it like this. Greb was by all accounts a slippery bastich who moved a lot, punched in flurries and had great stamina, defense and chin. It would have been a treat to see him in full cry. If you read his record, a lot of his losses or draws could have been wins. So he's top, top shelf. Guys that went headhunting against him tended to come up short. Tunney who eventually had his number (and fought at heavyweight) ended up attacking his body to slow Greb down because that's the only way he seemed to land clean leather on him.

Hagler on the other hand, we all know about. One of the most solid MW ATG's ever to strap on a pair, he could switch hit, and fought equally well inside, at range, and had THAT chin. He was a very serious dude that always arrived in 100% condition. As far as I'm concerned Hagler has almost no weaknesses. No way is Greb stopping him.

But.

But why I say Greb over Hagler is based on who Hagler did best and worst against. Vito Antuofermo was a busy inside brawler, and while Hagler beat him, he did not exactly have an easy time. Leonard was a defensively responsible, fast punching fighter, and he was given the nod over Hagler. Duran is a good inside guy with slick moves and a good workrate, and he also made Hagler sweat for it.

By the news reports of the time, Greb was the busiest, bounciest, most awkward buzzsaw to strap them on at middleweight. Given the guys that he successfully fought, Hagler's equalizer, his power, is probably not going to be a game changer here.

So, on a total thumbsuck, and with no footage whatsoever to go on, I reckon Greb would probably outwork Hagler down the stretch.

 

Greb is only on film in training clips. Here you can see Greb had good balance, like a well-balanced top that could hit or low, and land from angles.

Described as amateurish in his time, he also had amazing speed, amazing stamina to fight hard in 15 rounds, a hard to time defense, and was very skilled in the blacks art of dirty fighting. His chin was iron, and with his style, it had to be.

The human windmill was non-stop action, capable of burning his opponents under a hail of punches.

Gene Tunney said you have to go after Greb, and that's Hagler's problem as his ring IQ, and confidence in some fights was an issue.

Hagler was outsmarted by Leonard, too gun shy vs. a much smaller Duran, and outboxed initially by John Mugabi.

I don't think Hagler hit hard enough to stop Greb, nor do I think he'd throw more punches. So this one goes to the judge's score cards.

I sort of like Greb via Decision, in a controversial fight where Greb won more rounds by a smaller margin, and Hagler won the fewer rounds, but by a larger margin. Say 8-6-1 in 15 rounds for Greb.