Harry Greb v today's MW's - LHW's

greb is a boxer that could kill

 

You have offcourse video footage of Greb to support your position right ?.

Its not like you have only word of mouth and myth making to support your position ?.

 

Who did he kill???
Loooking at his record, as impressive as it is... full of many famous names.. He had no punch. Perhaps his style was best avoided by his opponents.

Would love to unearth some footage of Greb, and see the man in action... get a genuine balance on his ring style.

Such an air of mystery surrounds his true ring craft.

 

the tunney fight

 

The footage of him shadowboxing and fooling about sparring that i saw suggest he would be outboxed by a lot of modern fighters but you never know because the footage of him in a real action fight arent available

 

Of course we dont have fooage of Greb but theoreticaly he should be capable of beating anybody from middleweight to cruiserweight today.

I would be prepared to venture that:

Mickey Walker would be able to beat anybody campaigning at middleweight today.

Tommy Loughran would be able to beat anybody campaigning at light heavyweight today.

Gene Tunney would be able to beat anybody campaigning at cruiserweight today.

 

True Tunney lost conciousness after the fight and had to be caried back to his dressing room.

He said it was the only real beating he ever took.

 

On the other hand I doubt that Greb could pass the medical to get a boxing liscence today with only one good eye.

Perhaps Don King could help him out here.

 

I remember speaking with some of the old timers at the ring magazine on W31st in N.Y. as a youg man, Nat Fleicher mostly......and they had a pretty good eye and measurement when it came to fighters both back and now( even though they fought in black and white back then) Greb was a spoken of in awe...he was a truley amazing fighter right along side Sam Langford and Ketchel, amoung others....even though I never saw Greb fight I take there decription and respect there Judgement......Greb was one of the best and he would be if he shared the canvas with SSR,Ketchel,Marvin Hagler,Calzage, Hopkins,Fulmer,Monzon....Greb was GREAT

 

I am not buying myth making and eye witness records as viable evidence 90 + years later without real evidence like video footage.

Al we have from Greb are his record and eyewitness accounts from 90+years ago this is not enough to claim that he is a clear favorite over fighters who can be objectivelly ranked because we have film footage available to asses that fighters strengths and weaknesses.

i prefer cold hard facts that i can see over myths and eye witness accounts from 90 years ago.

 

Ketchel is not a man whose style would be accomodating today.

 

But you do have footage of fighters Greb beat like Tunney, Loughran, Gibbons, Walker etc.

Isnt the fact that he beat these obviously great fighters enough to say that he would be great in any era?

 

Ketchel is one guy am prepared to reserve my judgment on.

While he dosnt look verry impresive on film Philadelphia Jack O'Brien who he beat twice does.

Another fighter of the period who looks impresive on film is Tommy Burns and Ketchel did better against many common oponents than Burns.

This makes me suspect that there is something about him that is not obvious from the available footage.

 

It would help if I had anything other than old newspaper clippings to go on.

 

correct his record is good and that is why i have him in my lower top 10. But i still personally am not going to use Greb in a fantasy what if ?. Not enough info other then record to either favor or not favor him his record is reat but without actual footage of him he is very diffuclut to gauge against fighters we do have footage from and in my personal opinion it is aa bit unfair to judge fighters we can objectivelly gauge from the footage that we have of them against a mythical fighter with a great record who we cannot judge from footage .

If i am going to judge one fighter above the other i want to see for myself what his style was and what his strengths and weaknesses are his record though impressive is just not enough.