Les Darcy vs Harry Greb

By the pricking of my thumbs...

 

Without footage of Greb its difficult making a worthwhile pick.

 

Impossible to say really.

Darcy is something of an enigma. He might have gone on to be the greatest of all time, or he might got derailed somewhere along the line and gone into nosedive.

What is not in doubt is that he would have been trying to make his mark in one of the most merciless divisions in the sports history. Somebody would have beaten him at some point, and Greb is one of the better candidates for doing that.

 

Darcy was indeed an enigma but he had all the attributes a boxer needed to be considered the "greatest". He actually sparred with,at the time second ranked HW to face Jess Willard, and knocked him out in the second round after playing with him the previous round.

Can't say Greb vs anyone due to no fight footage.

Darcy, a victim of ego and greed. RIP

 

Darcy looks great on film I dont think anyone would disagree.

Based on writeups Greb sounds, to me, like a more elusive more accurate version of Joe Calzaghe.

A style such as that seems very difficult to overcome. It's gonna be nigh on impossible to land a ko punch and seemingly every round will result in you being outlanded.

Greb had reportedly legendary stamina so there's no fear of him tiring late.

But all that is just inference based on second hand data. any fighter can be talked up to the rafters but i need to see them first.

 

I think Darcy would start the heavy favourite over Greb, at any time Darcy was alive.

After that, it is hard to tell what would have happened. I expect Darcy would have almost certainly earned a shot at Dempsey. And to be honest, it is hard to imagine him beating Dempsey although it would have been a ******* of a fight. If he had, then campaining as a heavy, he would have come back to Australia and earned a fortune fighting guys who would travel, probably (realistically) sitting on his title, and giving a shot to the Australian champion, Jack JOhnson, Harry Wills and a Jack Dempsey rematch. All massive money making matches all very winnable if he gets over the Dempsey titleshot. Greb wouldnt be on the radar.

If he is outclased by Dempsey then i suppose Greb might be in their somewhere. You would imagine that psychologically this would hurt Dempsey's aura. Realistically, he is going to fight the Gibbons brothers first as they were rated higher (although he may have already fought them) without the aim for a world championship you would expect his career to dwindle as he aged, and as Greb proved that he himself improved. therefore, the longer the time, the better harrys chances.

 

Let's put this story to rest already. There has been found no primary source for it.

 

Butting here and seconding this.
No primary evidence supports this long ago claim that, according to Darcys legend, took place behind closed doors in Goshen NY

 

Prove it didn't happen? lol

Its seem plausible given the skill level of the HW division during the war, and what Dempsey did to Willard.

 

Not this again.

There has been primary source found.atsch

there has been no contemporary source. There is a difference. There has also been no evidence found to contradict the primary source despite many trying.

 

I'm using the historiographic definition of primary source - "source of information that was created at the time under study". None that had been presented regarding this story was a primary source. Don't confuse first-hand accounts with primary sources. First-hand recollections (auto-bios, etc) are a lot less reliable and cannot always be trusted.