Langford-Willard 1915

I honestly think that he ducked Greb every bit as much as Wills.

 

Dempsey was quite clear that he was afrad in the ring and that he used that fear. Here is Greb's case as I made it a couple of years back:


The earliest reference i've seen to Greb's calling out Jack is in 1918, before Dempsey was even champion. This was directly after one of Greb's wins over Battling Levinksy, who Greb would beat six (i think?) times out of six. Greb's challanged went unanswered and Dempsey matched Levinsky in Novemeber of that year, knocking him out in three - Greb wasn't boxing in Novemeber due to injury, but was busy again in January, Dempsey - deliberately or not - having by-passed Greb in favour of a fighter Greb had proven his superiority too and then treading water until his challange against Willard. Greb remained busy, never knowing what it meant for a fighter to rest on his laurels.

Greb's run at the HW title had begun with Willard in possesion of the title. In 1918 he had beaten Billy Miske, but it was 1919 that he would really stake his claim, against Bill Brennan, described by the Pittsburgh Post as "the best man in his class in the country[outside of Jack Dempsey]". The two met first in New York in Febuary - Greb was Brennan's total master, some papers scoring this fight a shut-out. Brennan apparantly was claiming that he was out of condition for this fight, and Greb being Greb, a re-match was granted. The Pittsburgh Post's headline for that fight: "Bill Brennan Beaten In Every Round". In spite of every concievable advantage in terms of size - height, reach and weight - Brennan was not in the fight, he was totally dominated.

The two met again 16 months before Dempsey would match Brennan for the HW title. Again, the fight was a one sided beating. The New York Times and the Washington Post both gave Greb "every single round". Frankly, it seems Brennan was not in Greb's class...but the title shot would go to Brennan.Brennan would tell journalist Paul Kennedy that "if Dempsey was fighting [Greb] instead of me, I would be on Greb" after his eventual fight with Jack.


It seems that there was work afoot to bring the two together almost as soon as Dempsey lifted his title, with promoters Jimmy Shelvin anbd Matt Hinkle both trying to land the fight. The Pittsburgh Post: "It is up to Dempsey. And it is going to be difficult for Dempsey to say "Go get a reputation for Greb's fought four fights to Dempsey's one, and licked as many, if not more HW's." The fight, of course, didn't come off. Instead, Greb would fight Miske, who Greb had already beaten a couple of times, including a fight that went 8-1-1 in Greb's favour according the Pittsburgh Post...is anyone finding this disturbing yet? Dempsey's decisions to match men that Greb has already crushed instead of Greb himself seems bizzare to me...


And it's not over yet. After apparently mastering Dempsey in sparring, Greb would crush Gibbons "manhandled him gleefully and semed to get a deal of satisfaction out of it", and he also did better against Meehan than Demspey did.


Miske, Brennan and Gibbons all get title shots


But no title fight for Greb.

Why not?

 

They were 1-1 up until the very end of 23. That's 7 years of stalking Dempsey with no joy before he went 2-1 down to Tunney in desperately close fights.

 

What a horrible thought.