In your opinion is Joe Calzaghe the closest thing to Harry Greb we’ll ever see?

YES...was thinking the same thing.

 

Greb fought black fighters.
Also that ridiculous windmill style gave Tunney his only career defeat and he was brutalised.
He beat Micky Walker with that style two all time greats.

 

He fought Tiger Flowers and kid Norfolk , and I believe he lost every time. Props to him for taking those fights, but two black guys out of nearly 300 professional fights is nothing to brag about.

Not that Calzaghe fought a majority of black fighters either, but his ratio was much higher, and he had far less fights to speak of

 

I have made the comparison myself.

 

I believe he fought many more black fighters than those two.
The two losses to Flowers were when he was in decline fighting blind in one eye even then they were split decisions, Greb was dead a couple of months later.
He beat Flowers a couple of years before.
His loss to Norfolk was by disqualification he beat Norfolk in their first fight.
By any stretch of the imagination looking at the fighters he beat Greb must have been a remarkable fighter.

 

Great post Mike.

Clearly the quality & depth of win their respective win resume's are aeons apart, though I find it interesting that your description of how Greb fought his opponents, would be a decent representation of how Calzaghe fought Lacy.

Again, no comparision in greatness, not between Calzaghe & Greb, nor Lacy & Greb's best opponents, just that when I read descriptions of how Greb fought, I think of a more physical & dirty style to that adopted by Calzaghe.

 

Honestly one of the best episodes of the Simpsons.

Marge keeping milhouses teeth.

‘don’t make me run I’m full of chocolate’

‘We won we wonnnnn, unfortunately I bet on the other team so we won’t be going for pizza’

the volleyball getting punctured on Lisa’s hair

‘watch out for the shaq attack’

Simpsons at its finest

 

Vinny Paz was a more refined polished instance of Harry Greb.

 

He didn't lose every time to either man. Greb beat Flowers in 1924 and Norfolk in 1921, Norfolk was actually the cause of Greb's blind eye. You can also argue that Greb beat Flowers in atleast one of their title fights, although that's kinda difficult without film. Regardless, most of the public strongly believed Greb won. Other black fighters Greb fought are Willie Langford and Allentown Joe Gans, as well as Hall of Famer Jack Blackburn, who was unquestionably an ATG.

 

Ok ok you got me. He was the great Zulu conqueror of his day.

 

Match Grebs resume with Calzaghe, then come back

 

Why the cynicism?

 

Calzaghe was probably closer to "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom?

 

I always pictured Greb in my mind probably fought like Mike "The Bounty" Hunter (the father, not the son).

It was a really frustrating style to watch (often dirty, lots of shoulders and head-first charges, shoving, low blows), but he threw and scored a lot when he wasn't do all the dirty stuff. And people who boxed in a traditional style (like Pinklon Thomas in the example here) had difficulty figuring out what he was going to do next.

This would explain how Greb won so many no-decision fights over so many names, yet people at the time didn't think he was particularly incredible and why he was largely forgotten or ignored for much of the latter half of the century until later fans started going back and looked at his record.

I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant style to watch, like Hunter's wasn't, whatever he (Greb) was doing.

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