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

Wasn't Greb famous at the time though? He seemed to be one of the most known names of the early 20s, I assume this partly has to do with his unique style as well. It's a shame he's forgotten

 

Famous? He won a world title, and everyone who did at the time was known to some extent. It wasn't like he was hailed the world over or anything. He was well known and talked about. But he primarily fought on the east coast of the U.S. and most people never saw him fight.

Most people still haven't.

I'm just commenting on his style. The way it's described, the person who comes to mind (to me) is Mike Hunter (Sr.).

 

Yeah but he headlined a lot of popular newspapers at the time, which wasn't something any regular boxer got. He also seemed to draw large crowds and arenas. Greb wasn't as known as Dempsey, obviously, but it seems like he was a fan favourite.

 

Boxing was the biggest sport in the US back then, other than horseracing and baseball. Greb got his share of headlines. He was a champ in the era when there were only a handful of divisions and boxing was huge. But he was totally forgotten for essentially most of the century.

How does that happen?

Nobody was bringing up Harry Greb and writing books about him until the internet came along in the 1990s and people started piecing together his record and got interested in him.

His style WASN'T described as fan-friendly. He was considered an awkward, dirty fighter who landed a lot of punches.

So, who threw a lot, was awkward, dirty, and didn't have a fan-friendly style, but beat name fighters, including champions?

Well, Mike Hunter Sr. did. And even while he was doing it, people seemed to go, well, he won, but he has a weird style, and he's awkward. You couldn't take away he was really cracking those guys, but, watching him, it was odd.

Hunter probably should've won more decisions than he did. Like five of his seven losses were by either split/majority decisions to go with two draws. He could've easily retired at like 34-2. But some judges couldn't get past the style.

 

Crazy how a watered down, clownish version of Greb was also the middleweight champion and had wins over Ezzard Charles and Ceferino Garcia.