Serious thoughts on this Harry Greb shadow boxing video?

Exactly it was a skit, a performance, a ham, a sideshow...

Do you honestly believe, strong, fit, tough men from yesteryear and times gone by, didn't know how to effen demolish their adversaries in a violent fit of rage, or in a more 'controlled' exceptable form, like Boxing, Pugilism or Prizefighting???

of course they did, don't be rediculous ... and loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong, long before boxing as we know it even!!!

 

Interesting, do you have any other examples of fighters shadow boxing dramatically for show?

 

Maybe if this was a shadow boxing competition Gred wouldent make the cut but his boxing resume speaks for itself and thats what is more important.
Aside from that I was under the impression the existance of Harry Greb was a myth.

 

look at Freddie Mills in at least 2 video promo's haming it up... Mills was a crude Hard fighter, but he wasn't like those training videos in Real fights... also Jack Johnson and others of course, Jimmy Wilde and more.

 

The Greb sparring is with Jack O'Brien who was in his 50s at the time, I believe. They were playing.

 

Shadow boxing has come a long way. Greb isn't a patch on these kids. Natural Selection at its finest.

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I'm lookin' at what you posted. That doesn't look like anybody's food to me. Especially not guys that fight once every 18 months.

 

A lot of people argue boxing is different to most other sports.

Duran probably peaked as a lightweight around 1978, 45 years ago. Now even going by slow incremental standards this is a lifetime ago and look at the progress made in other sports and endeavours in this time. What fighter around the same weight as Duran was, at present, would you point to as being better than Duran? Realistically given the time span we should be able to look at someone as being very noticeably better by this point.

We can go even further back with SRR. All the way back to 48/49, 55 years ago....more than half a century. He should look and perform primitively to the athletes of today - a mile behind them. We can throw up other guys like Charles as well.

 

I only say this as it strengthens your point John, not to be a pedant, 1948 is 75 years ago. I agree SRR looks incredible on film given 1) It was three quarters of a century ago; and 2) The only film of him his supposedly beyond his absolute peak.

 

Dinner used to call me Mr Pedant, i LOVE pedant. Thanks for correcting the typo mate.

 

As far as counting back years, I drew the line when we clicked over into the New Millenium. It's too scary to also include the many years that have passed since then. Tyson vs Holyfield 1? Hell, that was only 4-5 yrs ago.

 

Those times have been oft ridiculed on the forum since I've been here.

I don't see many at all saying fighters have progressed since the examples i cited. That would be laughed off the forum by the vast majority. Most in fact will say it's mostly devolved. Flash24 gives some great insight into this and he sure makes sense.

I'm not seeing any improvements at all from the 1940's, if anything the opposite. Surely we would be able to see them via your theory over 50-75 year periods. If they are that hard to see after half a century and more they just ain't happening.

The champs through a five or so year period of my biggest interest in boxing were -


Larry Holmes
Michael Spinks
Marvin Hagler
Thomas Hearns
Sugar Ray Leonard
Aaron Pryor
Roberto Duran
Alexis Arguello
Sanchez/Pedroza
Chandler/Pintor

Almost all of these guys were champs at the same time and prime. Imagine unleashing that lot on a current or very recent era.

 

Tyson’s the big thing with my son and his mates (aged 18), they watch his stuff all the time (although my lad likes other stuff, but doesn’t really go back much further than the 80s). My 15 year old nephew is obsessed with Tyson’s fights and every time there’s boxing chat it will invariably end up talking about him. They know Ali and are aware of some of his famous opponents (mainly Sonny, George, Joe and Kenny) but not to the extent of Tyson’s fights and life, as they find his style far more exciting.