Is Harry Greb the GOAT?

Greb's greatest career performance may have taken place in Tulsa against Brennan over the championship distance on the same day Dempsey lifted the HW Title from Willard in Toldeo, creating the proposal of an interesting fantasy bout, if indeed they both peaked on the same date. (It was 1919 when Greb went on that 45-0 tear against a noted lineup of opponents. He wasn't exactly thrashing tomato cans. Dempsey's record in 1919 was 1-0.)

I'm the guy who suggested to Burt that he might have actually seen Robinson against Brown in the final official card at the Coney Island Velodrome, supplying footage of Brown against Randy Turpin the following year, thinking Billy resembled Bobby rather closely. (Not sure, but I may have done this with Burt from a closed and deleted user account.)

Relieved if Burt finally gives it little thought these days, as it was driving him nuts for years. Also satisfied I've pretty much done everything I could online to try helping him resolve this.

A number of us gradually evolved the conclusion independently of one another several years back that Greb, not Robinson, was indeed the P4P GOAT. Burt arrived here in 2010 and reinforced that.

 

Thanks for your kind words Anubis...After many years of searching for an answer to my dilemma, keeping me up many a night I found myself
finding peace by not searching for an answer to why the second bout between Ray Robinson and Bobby ****s from Tampa, Florida is not found in the record books ? But saw that fight, hell yea...And it wasn't Billy Brown against Ray Robinson as they fought each other in 1950, TWO MONTHS before Ray Robinson decisioned Bobby ****s in Chicago that we saw on tv in 1950..The bout I recalled vividly when I saw it was a couple of years later at the Coney Island Velodrome...
I strongly believe that though the Coney Island Velodrome officially closed in 1950, it was not torn down for a couple of years and my hunch tells me that the fight I saw between SRR and ****s was a last minute affair...Thus the mystery...
And yes I for many years have Greb as the best P4P fighter ever based on his astonishing record of thrashing multitudes of great HOF fighters who were 10-40 pounds heavier than he was time and again.
Robby , the best fighter I ever saw in his prime knew his limitations, but Harry Greb, though not as pretty to watch HAD NO limitations..
cheers A...

 

Is it possible that the reason no one can see the second Robinson v ****s bout cant be seen is because some forward thinking officials realised the dangers of printing the name but didnt think of the clever use of the asterix like this site does and actually deleted all mention of the name? (or should i have left that conclusion to boxed ears to mention)

On a serious note burt, i have never understood how you rate Greb above Fitzsimmons pound for pound. Youve said many times that Fitz was so good as a middleweight it was unfair to rank him as a middleweight. Wouldnt that make him better than Greb, by default? I admit that him and a few others are on a rung where it really splitting hairs to rank guys above or below others, but surely this gives Fitz the slight edge.

 

B, I rate Old Fitz in another category of fighters before"modern times".
So to speak. Remember he kod Nonpareil Jack Dempsey for the MW title in 1891. By 1900 Fitz was fighting heavyweights and most likely was over 160 pounds by then.Pound for pound Fitz had to be the most destructive puncher ever.He was called " a boxing machine on stilts" by none other than John L Sullivan, and the great American poet
Edgar Lee Masterson, a devoted boxing guru who saw Fitz fight from the 189s til about 1950 til Masterson died ,who saw every heavyweight champion ringside wrote that Fitz was the "greatest heavyweight ever", and his opinion must be taken seriously...It is entirely possible that the Fitz who destroyed Non. Jack Dempsey in 1891, would have" caught up" to my man Harry Greb and beaten him
and it might have been possible featherweight great of the 1890s George Dixon might have beaten Henry Armstrong and Willie Pep too
but who can really guage this match...Too many intangibles matching fighters pre 1900...But historically I have Fitz, Langford, Greb,
Armstrong and Robinson in my top P4P fighters ever...And what I have heard as a boy growing up in the 1940s talking to "old timers" then, throw in Benny Leonard who was considered as great a lightweight fighter' as Ray Robinson was a welterweight...

 

Yes, you should have left that conclusion for BE to mention, as you specialize in different areas with different strengths. (Better to be a warm-up act for BE though, than following on stage. No poster that knows who BE is wants to attempt that stunt! Like Will Farrell trying to follow prime Richard Pryor.)

Now, let's see...will this ridiculously absurd automatic censor allow me to call him Bobby Lesbians or Bobby Strapon instead? Hmm...Preview Post indicates YES!

Boilermaker, we've both been here long enough to know Burt was going on and on about this for years before puny minded, indiscriminate and cowardly "political correctness" gone wild released those ASSterisks to run amok. As boxing went, so went a boxing forum. (At least the automatic censor still allows me to type Pooney, but I hope that doesn't inspire him to pull a Jenner and have himself surgically turned into Geraldine Pooney, validating Dino Denis questioning his masculinity before their fight.)

Joe Gans idolized Fitz, and likely would have agreed with rating his role model over Greb.

 

Fitz is my pick for the greatest fighter of all time if i'm ranking on things like resume and achievement.

But given that I currently rank h2h he doesn't make my top 100.

 

Because I don't think he's in the top 100 fighters skill wise.

Like no way is Fitz as good a fighter as Joe Calzaghe for instance, despite being much greater.

 

Wait how did you get ass to show up? Is that not a banned word.

 

But if you only rank h2h Calzaghe won't make top 100 either, will he? I mean, great as he was, he would be no match for Povetkin.

 

I mean h2h against someone their own size.

Like a p4p ranking rather than an ATG ranking.

 

I could easily assk YOU the same thing!:think

 

Conversation on twitter,Greb film out there?

@RPopBox Other than me watching my Harry Greb fight tape this morning

@rkmatchmaker You're alive & watching Greb- count your blessings!

@RPopBox I guess its good to be the owner of the only known actual fight tape of Greb

@rkmatchmaker You should keep it that way... once it gets out it's worth squat.