Live Fast, Die Young: The Life and Times of Harry Greb

If you can't hit someone in the head, go to the body.

 

Cool. Thanks for the reply. Makes him all the more incredible. Thoroughly enjoying the book.

 

Received the book. It's a textbook on Greb. Appreciate the end notes and the myriad sources. Wow. Thanks, Mr. Klompton.

 

After reading all the above Klomton's reports on Greb and pouring over deeds of his amazing career, how in tarnation can a Ray Robinson ,great as he was in his weight division, be considered over a Harry Greb who had the style, stamina, cujones, and ruggedness to beat guys much heavier than he was time and time again ? We are not talking about who was more pleasing to watch as Robinson was beautiful to watch, but who could do MORE with his respective WEIGHT, thus the phrase P4P ? Truly I'm
puzzled ...
P.S. A Bob Fitz, a Joe Walcott, a Jack Dillon, a Mickey Walker, and a Sam Langford,
along with a Harry Greb and Henry Armstrong had the unique qualities to beat much bigger and stronger fighters repeatedly than Ray Robinson whom I consider the best all around fighter along with Benny Leonard...But though Robbie always had at almost 6ft, a height advantage over his fellow welterweights he never tried to tackle a Burley, an Archie Moore, or Ezzard Charles as the above great alltime guys mentioned above.

 

The more I read this terrific book the more fascinating a job I realize the author did ... the research is astonishing .. some here would not love his assessment of Dempsey and how he predicted a Tunney victory ...

 

As a skinny welterweight as much of the time, Sugar Ray Robinson fought Jake LaMotta, a very strong middleweight, six times. As a middleweight, Robinson fought Joey Maxim in a bout in which the latter's world light-heavyweight title was at stake.

- Chuck Johnston

 

As a skinny welterweight as much of the time, Sugar Ray Robinson fought Jake LaMotta, a very strong middleweight, six times. As a middleweight, Robinson fought Joey Maxim in a bout in which the latter's world light-heavyweight title was at stake. I think that Robinson lacked the size and strength to fight Archie Moore and Ezzard Charles. Charley Burley wasn't a big enough gate attraction to make it worthwhile for many other boxers of the day to fight him.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Look, without question Robison was an all time exceptional fighter but this present day crowning him universally as all time pound for pound best never flew with me ... I have always felt Langford and Charles were top with Greb and Robinson right in there ...

When you look at it objectively, LaMotta was basically the best Robinson ever fought and while Jake was a great middleweight for sure in many ways if you study his swarming style he was a poor man's Greb .. Maybe Jake had a bit more power but Jake was no huge puncher, more of a mauler ... Greb was just as strong, had as good a chin but was much faster, better defensively and far better conditioned ... Greb clearly fought better opposition than Ray ever did and may very well have defeated him head to head at 160 ... it is very debatable ..

 

Harry Greb had quite a bit of strength, but Jake LaMotta was a naturally bigger fighter who was very strong. However, I do believe Greb was a far more versatile than LaMotta. Besides huge advantages over LaMotta in terms of workrate, stamina, defensive ability, the ability to fight while backing up, quickness and ring generalship, Greb had a very nimble pair of feet that he was rarely given credit for in articles that I read about him.

- Chuck Johnston

 

bought this today of amazon....really looking forward to it.

 

Kid Gavilan was the best Robinson ever fought, not LaMotta.

 

I am aware that the welterweight Ray Robinson fought the middleweight
six times...But aside from tackling LaMotta ,Robinson seldom ventured into fighting middleweights ...He once tackled a neighbor of mine Artie Levine
a MW ,who had Robinson on his back for about 17 seconds while the referee walked Levine to a neutral corner, than walked back to Robinson, and then started the count of one ,in which time Robinson had time to avoid a ko...And yes as a middleweight Robinson tackled the least dangerous Lightheavy Joey Maxim who did not hit any harder than some middleweights of that time...Robinson never tried to fight Archie Moore, or a Harold Johnson of that time...Robinson was a shrewed operator who knew his limitations...I am not knocking Ray Robinson at all as I saw him ringside as a welterweight several times and as a MW who kod Randy Turpin at the Polo Grounds in 1951...The best fighter I ever saw ringside, no doubt... But the fact remains that a Harry Greb tackled much heavier
HOF fighters such as Gene Tunney, Tommy Gibbons, Jack Dillon, Tommy loughran, Battling Levinsky, Maxie Rosenbloom, Gunboat Smith, Billy miske, Bill Brennan [5 times], Kid Norfolk, even Fat Willie Meehan amongst other bigger men who outweighed him...And truly Harry Greb, when required to was 158 pounds when he whipped the prime Mickey Walker
and MW Tiger Flowers just before he died...On this basis I have Harry Greb
ahead of the taller Ray Robinson as a P4P fighter...He tackled many men 15-30 pounds heavier time after time and whipped them all, and for the
last 5 years or so, with one eye to boot...