Was Tom Gibbons near his best when he fought Tunney ?

Harry Grebs public announcements of who he favored needs to be examined via his gamblers shrewdness of re balancing the odds more to his liking.

 

No, Tommy Gibbons was not close to his best, when he fought Gene Tunney in 1925, his LAST bout. Tommy Gibbons was THIRTY FOUR years old, and no longer in his physical prime. As Joe Louis said many years later, "I see the opening, but cannot respond quickly with the punches ".
Gibbons, who I saw on a film clip koing Brit Jack Bloomfield , about 1 year before, in such an impressive manner, that I was awed by his punching
ability, must have been a truly great fighter in his prime...But at 34 years old in the Tunney fight, he had to lose a lot of reflexes, as we all must at that age...

 

This is what I tend to suspect.

 

Exactly, he did waffle on Tunney/Dempsey in the press but he was firm on betting for Tunney. He did the same thing with Dempsey/Carpentier. One day he would say Carpentier had a chance, the next day he would say Dempsey would win. In reality he bet everything he had on Dempsey and even predicted the round he would stop Carpentier. Greb had one of the shrewdist analytical minds when it came to summing up fighters strengths and weaknesses and how those would play out in a match. He would watch guys sparring or in a fight and his gears would just turn as he took it all in. Greb always believed Dempsey was overrated, when he saw how much trouble Dempsey was having with Loughran, who was a slightly cheaper version of Tunney, he would have known instantly who to bet on. He might have said otherwise to the press but he was probably pretty solid on his pick early on.