Harry Greb was a dirty fighter - does it hurt his p4p ranking?

No. Robinson would have had to do the same if he were fighting in that era

 

No, because dirty fighting, as a concept, is relative. What's considered dirty in the modern era would not have been considered dirty back then.

 

Harry Greb was'nt a dirty fighter...He took two showers a day...Seriously,in Greb's 300bout career he was disqualified only twice for fouling.Once,when fighting the great 20 pound heavier Kid Norfolk, who thumbed Greb in the eyes,and Harry Greb returned the compliment...Rough and tough days then,and fighters followed the old adage"when in Rome do as the Romans do",or they would be eaten alive...Like Greb's saying,'Boxing is not the noblest art,and I'm not the noblest artist" We do what we have to do to survive at times....

 

If Greb was dirty, how come he doesn't have a lot of DQ's on his record?

I think very active fighters get a pass if they land a foul blow every now and then can partly be blamed on their style, and their opponents tendencies.

 

Are you waiting for a disagreement? Yes, he was a dirty fighter. So were many who fought during that era. No, it doesn't detract from his achievements at all.

 

Nar it doesn't hurt his standing. What would hurt his standing would be if he lost the fights he won. Just count the w's son!

 

And also, there is so much more to it than he was a 'dirty fighter'.

He wasn't always dirty. As we all know, most of these foul moves came into play only once Greb had received them from his opponent, and after his eye injury suffered against Kid Norfolk.

There was sometimes a conscious move by Greb to tone down his style, especially when he first received his World Middleweight title shot against Johnny Wilson, as he was worried how the judges may perceive his style. So he tried to tone down the windmilling and set his feet more, using more conventional punching techniques (which led to a 1st round K.O in a tune-up fight with a Heavyweight if I remember correctly)

In short, no it doesn't hurt his standing. From the reports it seemed he did more punching and moving more than anything, and any fouls he received he just returned accordingly.

 

No it may hurt his P4P rating that boxing as a sport wasnt at its pinnacle and some of his better wins were pre-prime or smaller

 

Wow. Another sensationalist quip. Yawn.

 

No it doesn't hurt him at all. Harry Greb was a great fighter without any of those tactics. These so called dirty tactics were done in an era with unattached thumb boxing gloves. It was easy to thumb someone back then. He did things that a lot of other fighters did in that era. Also, I have read that his dirty fighting has been blown way out of proportion. I read that he sometimes threw some kidney punches on the other side of the ref. Guys today do that. Bernard Hopkins is still considered great and he holds and hits and hits low.

By the way, my number one pound for pound fighter is Sugar Ray Robinson. He and Greb are two of my favorites. Where do I rank Greb? Probably #2 or 3.

 

And as far as being thumbed in the eye, I believe that is how Mr. Greb began losing his sight. It isn't hard to thumb someone with the gloves that they used back then.

 

How dirty was Greb?

In some way the legend has overshadowed the reality.

Some historians have argued that Greb was a fairly clean fighter before he was blinded in one eye, as a result of a thumb.

Greb has a reputation as a drunk/womanizer/fouler and he was all these things but he was not always these things.

It seems that he was faithfull to his wife before she died then he went off the rails and got into prostitutes.

He went to nightclubs before fights, but only pretended to drink to make his oponents take him lightly.

A few fighters who lost to him due to a legitimate punch said it was a headbut.