Mike O'Dowd underrated middleweight?

You were exaggerating by saying that Greb couldn't fight "for ****" at 158 and that O'Dowd's newpaper decision win over Greb was "bull****".

158 was a weight Greb could make fairly comfortably but he may have overdone it and ended up being a couple of pounds under the weight limit. That's his fault, not O'Dowd's. Even if the local papers were split on who won O'Dowd and Greb, that still doesn't mean it was a clear win for Greb by any means but a fight that could have likely been scored either way. O'Dowd deserves credit even for arguably defeating Greb.

The newspaper I posted claimed that Greb was announced as 150 pounds against Miske but he likely weighed more than that. Against Jeff Smith, Greb did weigh 155½ pounds, the same amount that he weighed against O'Dowd.

As for the Galindez-Rossman example, it's not like anyone here is claiming that O'Dowd rates over Greb or anything. But here's a man who could compete with Greb and many other greats and is not even acknowledged as a good fighter. He is not in the hall of fame and no one rates him as a middleweight champ these days. He has been all but forgotten about. I understand that you wanted to defend Greb but this is an appreciation thread made for O'Dowd, not yet another thread about Greb because we have had hundreds of those already.

 

I can understand being frustrated at that. Maybe O'Dowd's win over Greb is a myth. But you could have come off a bit better than you did in your first couple of posts. Now that I can see where you're coming from I have no problems accepting that there are real questions over O'Dowd's supposed win over Greb.

However what's clear is that O'Dowd was able to match a close to prime Greb, even if Greb was not in the best possible shape, and that's an accomplishment in itself. Most of Greb's opponents were overwhelmed and beaten clearly.

 

I read the figure on boxrec and went to read a newspaper article to confirm it with boxrec being as untrustworthy as it is but I didn't see any weights listed so I just went with the figure that was given. Clearly it was wrong and it's my fault for not paying attention and for using an unreliable source to attempt to back my claim.

However according to the book "Fearless Harry Greb", the spectators did not notice any significant difference in Greb's performance against O'Dowd from when he was weighing well above 160 pounds.

 

I've read your and klompton's criticisms about the book before which is why I'm asking. What are the errors in that book? What's your take on it?

I'm just here to further my knowledge on Greb now that I have the opportunity. You two are obviously more knowledgeable than me when it comes to Harry Greb.

What I've already learned:

O'Dowd's win over Greb was controversial, Greb possibly weight-drained. I never thought that O'Dowd, good as he may have been, was great enough to beat a prime Greb decisively but this is what I had read based on the few accounts that were available to me.

Greb's out of ordinary weight against Jeff Smith, Miske was listed wrong on BoxRec which I did suspect.

Now hopefully you can enlighten me on why Paxton's book is not regarded very highly by you two. I've heard that it's certainly not the be all end all when it comes to Greb.

 

I've seen klompton describe it has poorly/hastily written before. It's certainly not a very long book at over 200 pages. Wouldn't mind reading a more comprehensive account on Greb.

 

As would I. :good

Although this thread was supposed to be about O'Dowd at first but I guess the thread has taken it's natural course. There's only so much discussion you can have about O'Dowd but there is an endless amount when it comes to Greb.