Harry Greb

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-09-26-sp-188-story.html
Mentions seeing a 1/2 blind Harry Greb in 1924 in Oakland when he fought on his undercard

 

"Perfect"

 

That right there is the problem, we have very little footage of Greb and not much of his opponents (except Tunney). All we have are the numbers, which are astonishing, and the hearsay of sports journalists and boxing writers. The footage suggests a mobile quick in and out fighter that was hard to hit and used a lot of parrying and slapping away of punches, but again it isn't much. Greb's workrate was phenomenal and even if he did make a living beating tin cans, to have long undefeated streaks at multiple weights in over 290 bouts is still very impressive. There's a tendency among some old school fans and writers to rank Greb the no.1 middleweight and/or p4p, but I think that tells you more about the writers than Greb himself. In dark days people need a hero to look back to and Greb and Langford are often wheeled out to that end, so take what's said about them with a grain of salt. Still, Greb was special. There's a good book out there by Compton, Life and Times of Harry Greb, check it out for more info.

 

Mickey Walker and Tommy Gibbons also have quite a bit footage.

 

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He was as horrible as the video suggests. All boxers back then were horrible. If you want to truly understand boxing begin with Floyd.

 

Yes, and a few weeks back before that, and a few weeks back before that, and a few weeks back before that, etc., etc., etc.

 

Except he didn't achieve this incredible record over tin cans. In 1919 alone, a single year, he beat 5 Hall of Famers a total of 10 times. The dominance of his record over elite competition is such that it would take many grains of salt to believe an argument that he wasn't a Top 5 ATG.

 

You have to go by the people who have seen him...not some revisionist historian!!!

 

Greb probably the best ever

 

It just seems like talent in the past is being rated over talent over past generations. The only stand out names in 1919 were Mike Gibbons and Battling Levinski.

So it seems like HOF status was given out more readily to fighters from this era

 

Mike McTigue was a LHW champ.

Battling Levinsky was a LHW champ.

Bill Brennan gave Jack Dempsey one of his hardest challenges at HW. Greb beat him 4 times in 1919.

Willie Meehan beat Jack Dempsey over 4.

Jeff Smith was a hard customer who had done well against many of the era's best.

And again, this is ONE year.

 

I’ve read books on Greb, watched those YouTube videos, read newspaper clippings , people who saw him fight I’ve read there views... so if you take 3 people, Walker,Dempsey, and Tunney I think you can get an idea of who he was. Mickey walker from the footage I’ve seen of him was a serious fighter and is considered an atg middleweight. Dempsey needs no explanation and Tunney has plenty of footage also And both Gene and Jack are considered ATG heavyweights. He handily beat Walker, gave Tunney one of the most viscous beatings in ring history as described by many at light heavyweight , and supposedly beat the hell out of Jack in sparring which is why Dempsey said he wouldn’t fight him for real. And the craziest thing of all is he did a lot of this stuff with 1 eye. He was described as perpetual motion from the opening bell to the last bell. So I imagine the busiest swarmer in history with a relentless will and a deep desire to impose himself on anyone he fought. His record and the list of hall of famers he beat is unmatched. He went 45-0 in one year and not against stiffs against the top guys of the day..... Harry Greb Was the real deal.