His shadow boxing might look pretty bad, but it kinda fits the context of his style. He was an incredibly well conditioned, awkward speed freak. He definitely seems like the type to sacrifice fundamentals in reliance of his great chin and stamina. This footage is not only an example at how goofy athletes looked training back then, but it's also proof of how unorthodox Greb really was.
You have to understand something. In those days, fighters fought so regularly that they didn't do training camps. When they did do camps, the reason was to allow time to promote a fight. So, when they are filming the training, it is exaggerated and theatrical to promote the fight.
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!!!
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.
There may be a fallacy in this line of thinking, if taken too far. Improving athletic quality happens gradually. Sometimes so gradually that you can't see it happening until you zoom out and look at the big picture. Aging guys learn new tricks. Young guys take a while to hit their strides. Luck of various kinds plays a role. In boxing, probably a LARGE role. But progress does seem to happen, even if we can't point to decisive breaks where Champion #7 was massively better than Champion #6. To give an analogy, think about going bald. Stop the clock at any point in the process. Is the balding guy REALLY that much balder on Tuesday, May 1, 1975 than he was the day before? No. The change is slow enough to be imperceptible. But as many of us are painfully aware: the change still happens.
Shadow boxing has come a long way. Greb isn't a patch on these kids. Natural Selection at its finest. This content is protected
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.
Even the people who say boxing is different believe that it's progressed. They just differ from the modernists by saying that progress stopped at some point. Aside from @janitor, few Classic posters claim that James J. Corbett or Bob Fitzsimmons were the same as modern heavyweights, for example. That's probably the biggest change since 20 years ago. So many have departed from the original faith...
