I dont need fight film to confim Grebs great abilities

Please, patch-up the spelling on your title.:deal

Now, I still need film footage for me to make an accurate assessment about Greb.
:good

While enough articles have been written and stories told for generations, I still know that seeing is truly believing..
:yep

However, aside from all that jazz, I too pretty much have Greb as a solid top-10 all-time great 160 pounder...
:bbb

SR.BILLARDO:hat

 

On paper he is arguably the greatest p4p fighter ever.

I asked this on another forum just a couple of days ago....do any of you think Greb could have been exaggerating his movements much the way silent film actors did, based on the film and film speed of the day?

 

Dude, Greb can't be ranked accurately without film. That is the problems with fighters of that time.

You can't say he is the best ever without us having seen him fight.

Imagine if there was just training footage and writings of Henry Armstrong. Everyone would call him the greatest ever without a doubt. But now that we have film of him, we can see that he isn't the best ever, but is Top 5.

 

I disagree. We have plenty of video from opponents he fought. We have newspaper accounts and fighter testimony of the day. Combined these paint a very vivid picture of an amazing career.

 

Who says so? There very much is a case for him to be. Very much.

 

So there is no film of Greb but he is the greatest ever?

OK, that makes sense....

There are at least 5 fighters in history greater than Greb (Ali, Robinson, Armstrong, Pep, Louis and even arguably Gans & Langford).

 

Could you indulge me and make your case for any (or ideally all) of Ali, Pep or Louis being greater than Greb?

 

Out of that list there are Only 2 who are arguably greater, Langford and SRR. Besides those 2 nobody met and beat as many great fighters as Greb. Can you dispute this?

 

Well my feeling is that there is the holy trinity of Greb, SRR and Hank and everyone else fills in behind them. I honestly do not know enough about Langford, and certainly should educate myself on him, but as it stands I can't place him any higher than those three guys simply because I don't know the history.

But as far Ali, Pep and Louis. I seriously doubt that you can make an even compelling case that they deserve to be considered greater than Greb. With or without footage.

 

At the moment I currently rank Langford the greatest fighter ever. He beat all time great fighters from lightweight to heavyweight. His biography by Clay Moyle was excellent in my opinion and you can find enormous amounts of information about him on the web.

My ranking are always subject to change on any given day depending on what I learn new of each fighter. I've just started Bill Paxton's biography "The fearless Harry Greb" and could rank him #1 all time come next week.

Whatever anyones arguments are to who is the greatest, it is undeniable that Greb is up there. To say he isn't because of lack of film is like calling the people who actually saw him fight Liar's. Its a slap in the face. Jmo.

 

I've read Paxton's book and while the writing leaves a little to be desired, it is highly informative and does well to dispel many of the rumors perpetrated by people like James Fair. Thanks for the recommendation on the Langford book, I'll seek it out.

 

Groffo was the greatest ever. Everyone who fought him would say it almost imediately after their fights. "He'd be untouchable if sober..." etc.

Greb got his deliverance after death.

 

Rez -- I've read the book. There's not much flair in the writing, and a casual reader would most likely tune out, particularly in the early chapters when it is a case of Greb fought this guy and then he fought this guy and then Gibbons avoided him and then he fought Blackburn, and he was great, and he fought Chip and he was great again, etc.

However, IF - and this seems to be a big if, as much of what has been passed around about Greb seems to have derived from legend - the facts presented in the book are accurate, then it is highly informative and does well to set straight the rumors that pervade the legend, such as his drinking, womanizing, etc. Not what I would call a good read, but certainly integral to a good understanding of Greb.

I suspect Klompton's book will become the industry standard though, whenever that is released...

Keep up the stellar work on the videos, man. When does your heavy weight one drop?