Is Harry Greb the GOAT?

burt.
did you ever find out about that robinson fight at coney island you seen ?...one that didnt show on his record

 

i could make an argument for a few guys being goat, greb, sam, srr, charles, armstrong + fitz, who i go back and forth on.

but i could also give reasons why they aren't, except for greb, which is why i would that say he is.(maybe greb benifits from not fighting dempsey because the knock on charles is that he got ko'd)

obviously excluding rankings based on film, but by defintion that isn't goat ranking because there's a bunch of guys who can't be ranked on film.

 

dougie, nice to hear from you...
NO, I have never SOLVED that mystery which will ever haunt me.
BUT, I know as sure as I am posting you at this moment that I and a deceased Navy buddy who was with me that day in the early or mid 1950s, saw Ray Robinson fight a 10 round decision dull win over Bobby ****s of Tampa, FL. I recall that day that they fought once before in Chicago in 1950 which we saw on our 12" tv. And it was not a Billy Brown who fought Robinson in 1950 two months before Robby fought Bobby ****s in Chicago in 1950. The fight I did see was Robby against the tall elongated Bobby ****s at the Coney Island Velodrome a couple of years later...Some nice boxing fans have tried to help me, but to no avail, so Doug to avoid "agita" I give it little thought these days. Somehow in the back of my mind I "think" this
fight in the 1950s was a last minute affair so maybe this is where the
"mystery" lurks...Cheers D...

 

Not for me, that spot is reserved for Robinson

 

Greb never once said Dempsey would beat him under any circumstances. If anyone can find me an actual first person quote of him saying that you take the prize. In reality, not the imagination of some boxing writer who never met Greb, Greb was supremely confident that he could beat Dempsey anywhere from 6 to 20 rounds and said so more times in actual VERIFIABLE quotes (not third, fourth, and fifth hand hogwash) more times than i care to count from 1918 on.

 

That's about right.

 

Robinson for me

 

absolutely one of them, resume and the deceptive achievement based, he is among the Very TOP...

but the evolution and development of aesthetic style, athleticism and skill leaves the earl years of boxing behind.

the better Era's from the 1930s onward to the present decline (generally speaking, there's always exceptions), places that 50 - 60 year period ahead of Greb's period and the years before him.

the TOP men from those years betters the Top men from his years and indeed better the Top men from recent years.

it is IMPOSSIBLE to say with 100% certainty, but I agree with LUF and a thousand others, it's Robinson.

 

For me, the greatest filmed fighter, yeah. There is no caveat to that statement.

 

if i may....grebs own words...

https://m.facebook.com/classicboxin...09893090/?type=3&source=48&ref=content_filter

 

my papi always taught me that SRR was the best,,,

he would whoop me if I tried to argue Greb, Moore, Henry or some of the others,,,

 

Burt might be right about Greg as the greatest esp since he has seen Robinson and Armstrong. By the. Way Dempsey would have absolutely murded Greb

 

Harry Greb may have been a goat. There's no film on him.

 

Perhaps Dempsey beats him by the way but on the way Greb has a great chance to win.

 

L54,my choosing Harry Greb as the best P4P fighter ever has nothing to do with the fact that I saw Robinson and Henry Armstrong ringside. To have seen the welterweight Robinson in action was a revelation indeed.
I base my opinion of Greb being the greatest because he had the ability , COURAGE and fortitude to constantly take on and BEAT much heavier men be it LHs and heavyweights time and again, ducking NO ONE. SRR though the greatest all around fighter ever, KNEW his weight limitations, whilst Harry Greb was a rugged, iron jawed windmill that had no weight limitations...
P.S. another reason I choose Greb is because Robinson at any weight would not have beaten many of the heavier HOF fighters Greb whipped, while not one of Robinson's opponents would have beaten the prime two eyed Harry Greb...