Harry Greb Best Man For Carpentier Bout, Says Edgren

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While looking for interesting articles I came across this statistic:
21828 results containing “jack dempsey”
2768 results containing “harry greb”
Covering the years each was fighting up to 1922.
Maybe that statistic alone clues everybody who was way more popular and might offer a clue as to why the Dempsey - Greb didn't come off. As in that article by Edgren, when he spoke to Rickard, as I have stated Rickard was about MONEY. And this article gives you a little insight into the way Rickard thought about promoting.

 

Here's more stat's based on newspaper articles:
21828 results containing “jack dempsey”
70 total fights end of 1922
7938 results containing “fred fulton”
93 total fights end of 1922
6368 results containing “gunboat smith”
140 total fights end of 1922
6362 results containing “georges carpentier”
105 total fights end of 1922
5197 results containing “harry wills”
98 total fights end of 1922
2896 results containing “bill brennan”
98 total fights end of 1922
2768 results containing “harry greb”
229 total fights end of 1922
2094 results containing “billy miske”
103 total fights end of 1922
1953 results containing “Battling Levinsky”
245 total fights end of 1922
1547 results containing “tommy gibbons”
90 total fights end of 1922
1000 results containing “gene tunney”
57 total fights end of 1922
57 results containing “luis angel firpo”
21 total fights end of 1922

 

This list only pertains to a period til the end of 1922, I do realize that most of the guys mentioned fought past 1922. I am sorry that it isn't a definitive list, it was just something I noticed and thought it was interesting. I am new to this searching old newspapers to me Chroniclingamerica is a start. I have found interesting stuff in there and I post to share and let people read actual reports from people who actually saw these great fighters, to be able to read their own words is great. I would recommend to anyone to search in Chroniclingamerica to start it's easy and they have a text and PDF format, it's fun to find out about these great fighters from writers that talked to and saw fighting. If someone can recommend other sites that would be great.

 

Maybe I am not saying that, as much as I am saying that Dempsey was the man who was most popular and cos he was that popular his people(manager and promoter) could fight who they could make the most money with. That article I posted has a nice little blurb about the writer who was pushing Greb to fight Carpentier to Rickard and what did Rickard do? it's there. Rickard was about money and he seemed to have a good instinct in picking moneymakers. Like the writer said, if Carp had fought Greb and lost there wouldn't have been that million dollar gate.
Before I am attacked, Greb based on fighting the LHW and HW's deserved a shot, but I guess to Rickard it wasn't as sellable a fight as Carp, Tunney or Firpo, it was just business. Based on my limited searches, Greb had a better shot to get a Dempsey fight, if Dempsey had not fought Carp. Dempsey played with Carp, so people were not gonna get fooled again by Dempsey fighting basically a middleweight. Was it right? Was it fair? Nobody can prove that Dempsey was afraid of Greb, Rickard had his reasons for not making that fight IMO he didn't see it as a huge money maker or to be fair you can argue that Rickard/Kearns thought that Greb would make Dempsey look bad. That Rickard matched Dempsey with Tunney should show that he wasn't afraid of putting Dempsey in a rough fight, if there was a million dollar gate to be promoted. We now look back and say this should have happened or that but it didn't for whatever reason. Today look no further than Floyd, or Julio Cesar Chavez jr, who were ATG great cherry pickers, looking for Low risk /high reward fights, it happen then and it happens now.

 

Money, $$$$ that's the only logic that counts, I would think he made the least fighting Miske, with Gibbons, he made a good sum and would've made more if the projections were corrects. Kearns was smart enough to get his money up front including the gate.
Grebs numbers were not that high, while as you say Dempsey fought Carp and Tunney and they had less numbers but those fight were million dollar gates. All those numbers only mean that they were being talked about, that's all. Why, were Tunney, Carp, and Firpo, big sellers? Cos the promoter did his job and instinctively chose the guys that would sell the most tickets, and people did buy the tickets, so I guess despite what we may think Rickard did his job and made the most money.

 

This one is probably will drive you crazy but hear 'tis. Remember this is only up to 1922 from chroniclingamerica. It's a survey of people who followed boxing at that time period. It's sampling only, the people who followed boxing at the time mentioned these particular fighters XX amount of times. Now I wanted to know about specific fights. I like to hear opposing views keeps you on your toes.
Here goes be kind.
31 results containing “jack dempsey - harry greb”
0 Results were found “harry greb vs jack dempsey”
30 results containing “harry greb - jack dempsey”
1 results containing “jack dempsey harry greb fight”
194 results containing “dempsey - greb”
4082 results containing “dempsey - carpentier”
1328 results containing “dempsey - wills”
3532 results containing “dempsey - willard”
992 results containing “dempsey - fulton”
906 results containing “dempsey - brennan”
628 results containing “dempsey - miske”
39 results containing “dempsey - firpo”
280 results containing “dempsey - gibbons”

interesting the numbers for the million seller on the list, but remember Firpo at the end of 1922 had 21 fights. The mentions indicate their interest in the subject.