Sugar Ray Robinson would have cut Greb to pieces

No doubt in my mind that Sugar and Harry,prime for prime,would have given us a fight for the ages.

 

You are correct. Greb weighed 137 in his third or fourth pro fight. 2 1/2 pounds more than robinson in his debut

 

Comparing these two fighters is laughable, we haven't seen either of them in their prime. Hell, we haven't even seen Greb fight on film! Both were great fighters who fought everyone from ATG's to tomato cans! Btw Robinson planned on moving up to Heavyweight had he won the light heavyweight crown. Robinson retired for the first time at the same age that Greb died at with a record of 131-3-2 compared to Grebs 261-17-19. Also, it is nonsense to say a fighter is great just because they "beat the man who beat the man", with that logic, we can say a flyweight beats a Heavyweight!

 

Greg, you can take this to the bank. Harry Greb was BLIND in one eye for many years. My dad lost his eye in an accident but still faked his cab drivers X-am each year for many years while wearing a glass eye...Peter Falk [Columbo] actor lost one eye as a baby but still had a great acting career. But he didn't have to worry about being walloped in his good eye for maybe 5 years of vicious bouts as Harry Greb did..
Greb had CUJONES in spades, yessir...
P.S. I and hundreds of boxing writers and historians of his time NEVER called GREB GREAT because of his loss of an eye. But I for one
am awed by his courage for years after entering the ring knowing that a blow to your remaining orb can virtually render you blind to your opponent...If that ain't courage ?. What is ?...

 

Why do people repeatedly say we have never seen Robinson in his prime? When exactly was Robinson's apparently very narrow window for being called prime?

We have footage of Robinson in 1939, 1940, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1955 (he was retired for 53 and 54), 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1965. Are we saying he was past his prime before he won the WW title and before he even turned 24? Im not buying that.

 

1939? The amateur video of Robinson is like 40 seconds long lol hardly something to go by. What footage do we have of him at welterweight? I'm curious because I have yet to find any. I've always been told that there is none or if there is it's rare.

 

Greb would have given Robby all he wanted...(possibly more). But I can't make that call without more to go on...I think Robinson would beat Walker at their best...and I would say that Walker matured and improved at middleweight over
welterweight. It is reasonable to say it would be close, and possibly a split series between Greb and Robby.

 

If I am not mistaken, there is some footage on Youtube. There has been at least some footage of welterweight Robinson since the VHS days actually.

 

I searched many times but all that comes up are videos that say welterweight but turn out to be middleweight fights from the 50s

 

Was Robinson prime in 1939? If not it doesnt matter. The fact is we still have footage from all of those years.

1946: Beckett, Riccio, Flores, Angott 20 mins total
1947: Abrams 7 mins
1948: Docusen 20 mins
1949: Brimm 7 mins
1950: Barnes, Stock, ****s, Fusari, Van Dam, Stretz, Villemain, roughly 100 mins
1951: LaMotta, Hecht, Turpin, Turpin, Walzack 139 mins

Thats about five hours worth of footage from Robinson's prime not including all of the sparring footage we have. I think we have a pretty good handle on how he fought.

 

You know, I have often wondered about this myself! What is the earliest newspaper/magazine article, where we can read, that Greb was totally blind in one eye for the last several years of his career?

 

Since I have all of my footage digitized AND I can do basic addition (unlike you) it took me all of five minutes to put that together. Sorry to disappoint you. Lol.