Dempsey's "duck" of Greb

[McGrain]

Seems open and shut to me personally.

http://www.boxing.com/dempseys_bloodhound.html

But it is after their August of 1918 bout that Jack Dempsey first becomes a part of our tale. Levinsky had been vocal about a fight with Dempsey, but in the wake of this second loss to Greb, eyes turned to Harry. Would he want to face the world’s latest fistic sensation?

Under the Pittsburgh Post headline “Greb Beats Levinsky; Challenges Dempsey” it was announced by Greb that he was “anxious to take on” this so-called “Manassa Mauler.” Nobody that has shown an interest in his career can be surprised. Greb would fight anyone.

For Levinsky meanwhile, a rethink was in order. According to the Milwaukee Journal “...he will go into hiding for a while so far as being matched with Jack Dempsey is concerned.” This is all understandable, simple and fair. Battling Levinsky had a Dempsey fight on his horizon, but now Greb has beaten him twice, this lucrative fight belongs to the victor, right? Wrong. We are now entering Dempsey-World.

[rightsideup]

Greb was a special fighter too bad there is not more footage of him. I have a book on gene tunny that has chapters on greb , dempsey and a few others that describe grebs sparring session with jack and how frustrated jack was.

[Capaedia]

Another great article.

It does seem open and shut. It would not have done wonders for his legacy to be caned by a man who moved up from middleweight in the middle of his title reign.

[JAB5239]

There has never been any doubt in my mind the Dempsey ducked Greb.

[SBleeder]

I think Dempsey would have likely pulled out a victory... but I do agree that he wasn't willing to take the risk. It's too bad. We would have finally had video footage of Greb had this fight taken place.

[BattlingNelson]

Good read.

Greb was such a badass. He arguably has the greatest resume of all time and I reckon he probably belongs in a discussion with Robinson as the GOAT.

[Rspen46]

Great fight!

Could have been an all time classic, I think Dempsey's handlers chose for him, and probably only got a passing thought from him, either way I doubt he cared much about whom he fought as he probably was like most Champs and legends, he had to believe in that Legend some himself, and act it when he was in public, so he had to think he was invincible, if you were Dempsey at the HW Champ at that time, in his shape and Physical condition, you would have thought so also, and figured you could beat anyone alive, even Greb, and more so because he was MW, so I truly doubt Jack had any doubts he would have bested anyone at the time, his people wanted to make the most money possible and they knew that Greb or Langford or any other big name at the time they wanted to avoid, had a Punchers chance to win at anytime, so yes, there were fighters that most likely were avoided, but not by Dempsey himself, but by the people that made his decisions for him.
But I wish he had fought Greb, Langford, Wills, Jeannette, Mcvey, Uzcudun and Others, but he didnt, so we can't cry over what should have been, because as with most promoters and handlers and owners of great fighters, they were too greedy to do what should have been done.

[sonnyboyx2]

Seems open and shut to me personally.

http://www.boxing.com/dempseys_bloodhound.html

But it is after their August of 1918 bout that Jack Dempsey first becomes a part of our tale. Levinsky had been vocal about a fight with Dempsey, but in the wake of this second loss to Greb, eyes turned to Harry. Would he want to face the world’s latest fistic sensation?

Under the Pittsburgh Post headline “Greb Beats Levinsky; Challenges Dempsey” it was announced by Greb that he was “anxious to take on” this so-called “Manassa Mauler.” Nobody that has shown an interest in his career can be surprised. Greb would fight anyone.

For Levinsky meanwhile, a rethink was in order. According to the Milwaukee Journal “...he will go into hiding for a while so far as being matched with Jack Dempsey is concerned.” This is all understandable, simple and fair. Battling Levinsky had a Dempsey fight on his horizon, but now Greb has beaten him twice, this lucrative fight belongs to the victor, right? Wrong. We are now entering Dempsey-World.

your link above would not load....

The guy named Clompton who wrote the book on Harry Grebb, in a recent interview i heard from him saying, Doc Kearns, "Never returned the telegrams Grebb's manager sent"... This is now nearly 100yrs later regarded as "DUCKING"...ffs.

Clompton in the same interview described Grebb's fighting style to be similar to a cross between Calzaghe & Mayorga...me personally i don't feel he would have stood much chance of defeating Jack Dempsey.

The film-footage which exists of Grebb, signing to fight Mickey Walker. shows him to be a small guy in height and body size. Dempsey was the size of Holyfield... Calzaghe vs Holyfield?

[McGoorty]

There has never been any doubt in my mind the Dempsey ducked Greb.

If he did it was because Dempsey had more important fights, he is not yet heavyweight champion, I truly hope none of you all and you, Jab are even suggesting Dempsey was somehow scared of Greb, that is preposterous, as good as Greb was this is a fight Greb gets hammered in, Dempsey would have beaten him up and most likely knocked him out. That fool Klompton once told me Greg would have beaten Darcy back in '17 when Dracy was the best and Greb was still coming up but not there yet but we know where his loyalties lie. Greb is being overblown here....... as usual.

[McGoorty]

I think Dempsey would have likely pulled out a victory... but I do agree that he wasn't willing to take the risk. It's too bad. We would have finally had video footage of Greb had this fight taken place.

Not at all sure we would have had footage, Dempsey at this time was just a top contender, the first film of him is his title shot.