Harry Greb Confident He Can Beat Dempsey

Only by those who either dont know, don't understand or want to distort the very well known history.

 

Here is a well known boxing writer pegging his top twenty hwts as of December 1920. Writer was based in Pittsburgh. Where is Greb:


Now for THE PRESS revise--Today's chieftains: No. 1, Jack Dempsey; No. 2, Kid Norfolk; No. 3, Fred Fulton; No. 4, Jess Willard; No. 5, Harry Wills; No. 6, Jack Johnson; No. 7, Bill Brennan; No. 8, Sam Langford; No. 9, Charley Weinert; No. 10, Sam McVey; No. 11, Frank Moran; No. 12, Tom Gibbons; No. 13, Mike O'Dowd; No. 15, Gene Tunney; No. 16, Bill Miske; No. 17, Bob Martin; No. 18, Georges Carpentier; No. 19, Jack Thompson; No. 20, Al Reich.

 

Care to give us an exact date?

Interesting list. Couple of points:


Greb defeated 7 of the men on that list before his career was over, two others flatly refused to fight him (Bob Martin and Georges Carpentier) and he had been scheduled to fight Moran before Bob Martin defeated him and immediately issued a statement saying he was not yet ready to face Greb and needed more development first.

Harry Wills defeated 6 men on that list.

Dempsey defeated 5 men on that list and is well known for having ducked three of the others.

When that list was made both Greb and Dempsey had defeated four men on the list. Wills had defeated five men on that list.

Tommy Gibbons defeated four men on that last over the course of his career.

Jack Johnson defeated four men on that list (three were a generation earlier)

Sam Langford defeated four men on the list (most a generation before)

Billy Miske defeated four men on that list but it should be noted that one of those wins was against Tommy Gibbons in a fight he was losing one sided until Gibbons was controversially disqualified. The men fought numerous times and Gibbons won every other time they fought. So technically Miske has a win over Gibbons but it was as hollow a victory as you could get.

Fred Fulton defeated three men on the list.

Gene Tunney defeated three men on that list.

Jess Willard defeated two men on that list.

Sam McVea defeated 2 men on the list (nearly a generation before)

Kid Norfolk beat one guy on that list.

Charlie Weinert beat one guy on that list.

Bill Brennan beat one guy on the list.

Bob Martin beat one guy on the list.

Jack Thompson beat one guy on the list.

Georges Carpentier defeated nobody on that list over the entire course of his career.

Frank Moran defeated no one on the list.

The inclusion of Mike O'Dowd pretty much kills any credibility. O'Dowd had lost his title to Johnny Wilson earlier that year. The largest fighter O'Dowd ever defeated weighed 165 pounds and that was Sailor Petroskey who was an out of shape old balding middleweight. Did O'Dowd ever come anywhere near fighting any of the other top 20 listed there?

Al Reich's inclusion is equally amusing, he beat no one on that list either.

Notice a trend here? The more information you bring to light the more obvious it is that Harry Wills and Harry Greb were Dempsey's leading contenders.

Thanks for the help:good

 

Probably number 11.

 

Dude since when was Carpentier a heavyweight ??? answer... NEVER and you say he ducked Greb... any idea why ??? I doubt you have any idea... all this Guy A ducked guy B is usually NONSENSE.. if the money is good enough and the fighter knows he can be fit and in shaped for it rarely do they refuse... to claim top pros are scared is the stupid talk of guys who never boxed in their life. I personally know Bob Mirovic who is now 50 and still fighting.... he is no Lewis or Klitschko, he is a pro...... he is scared of no man even though he knows there are plenty who can beat him up but as a pro he says who cares.. so you get busted up... the money makes up for it.... I asked him why does he fight... for love of boxing.... NO... he loves the sport but it's ONLY money he says... so does another friend... Corey Sanders ex heavyweight... they are all the same... they fight for money... end of.... and if they have already made a squillion they only fight when they want to... end of. Pro fighters are not scared of any boxer, if they were they would never get in the ring

 

Then Dempsey should have knocked Greb on his ass in their sparring session instead of being clowned. If he'd done that there wouldn't be half of this debate. It would have been accepted that Greb was too small because "look what Dempsey did to him in sparring". Instead the opposite happened.

 

Some more from the same man, who's rankings I posted in the other thread.
Jim Jab speaking in March 1946, including an opinion on Greb's chances against Dempsey.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=zUwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3247,5721170&hl=en

 

I think what is lost on you Dempsey, is that you keep making these posts which in your head somehow make Greb look like less of a viable challenger for Dempsey but which, in reality, every single time just highlights how much of a challenger he was.

You are the cause of your own frustration.

 

Silly talk. Lots of **** happens during sparring. Sparring is not a real bout. Greb at 5'8 165 pounds never felt the singular punches that destroyed huge hwts. He never felt the punches that prime Sharkey discussed years later as harder than Joe Louis punches and added: "I never thought anyone could hit that hard". No middleweight takes those type punches.

The low purses offered Dempsey reflect the boxing publics interest in the fight. Dempsey got nearly half a million fighting Carpentier in 21. Dempseys value fighting as hwt champion of the world increased greatly by that time.

 

Agree with this ^ :deal

For the record I do also think Dempsey was likely to be too powerful for Greb over a longer fight. But after that argument that Klompton laid out in another thread I'm convinced that Dempsey should have faced Greb. Greb had won that right, at least.