Slow day today.......so i was loitering around boxrec for a while, taking a look at Harry Grebs record. and YES going by the record, he was the greatest middleweight ever. nobody did what he did. think about it: golovkin taking on say Canelo on monday over ten rounds for a UD. then on wednesday he beats up murata over ten. then on saturday he mauls BJS over 12. next week, same Thing. CRAZY! but he did it. but Middleweight is not the issue here. Lets look at harry´s record at HEAVYWEIGHT: first off, when you talke heavyweight in the 1920´s you are basically talking both heavyweight and light heavyweight. men were much smaller/lighter back then that they often alternated between the devisions. dempsey´s best wins came over batteling levinsky, George carpentier and Tommy Gibbons...all basically light heavyweights. greb walked all over Gibbons most of the time. but also beat levinsky, gene tunney, Billy miske (before miske was ill), bill brennan, Tommy loughran, willie meehan (yes, the Little fatty who twice beat dempsey);gunboat Smith, maxie rosenbloom, Jimmy slattery and Jimmy delaney. oh crap: writing this, i Change my mind. Greb had a much better record than dempsey. dempsey´s wins over Carl Morris, Fred fulton or Luis Firpo are much LESS impressive than the wins by Greb over Tommy loughran, rosenbloom, delaney or slattery. so imo: Greb was a greater HEAVYWEIGHT than Dempsey.
Greb lost to Gibbons the first time he fought him. Dempsey dominated Gibbons the 1 and only time he fought him. He didn't need a second try. Greb was a p4p top 2 fighter of all time. h2h he would have been toast against Dempsey.
Even in the 50's you had lightheavies up fighting small heavies regularly. Harold Johnson, Archie Moore, Willie Pastrano, Ezzard Charles, Bob Satterfield, etc.
Greb beat a young Tunney he couldn't handle the mature version and Dempsey was way past it when he fought Tunney ,he still managed to drop him though Greb never did.
i wouldn´t call Tommy loughran "Basic". personally, i think someone like loughran would have beaten morris, fulton and firpo.
Look its simple you cant call Dempsey's opposition "basically light heavies ," then say Greb beating the same men makes him a better heavy? It's ludicrous!
Dempsey was past prime and hadn't fought in years. He still managed to put Tunney down when Greb couldn't do that once in several fights.
