Harry Greb No1 LHW?

Barnburner · 01:11 PM

Could a case be made for this, I was looking through Grebs LHW resume and it really is quite remarkable.

He beat:
Kid Norfolk
Tommy Loughran x3
Maxie Rosenbloom
Went 1-1-3 against Tunney which could arguably have been 2-1-2.
Tommy Gibbons
Willie Meehan
Billy Miske
Jack Dillon
Battling Levinsky x6
Gunboat Smith
Mike Gibbons
Jack Delaney

He didn't hold the title but, he was "the man" in the division after beating Tunney and gaining the LHW belt so we can consider them the "lineal" champ and defended once against Loughran before contraversially losing it to Tunney the second time. The reason being Carpentier wasn't up for facing Greb while he was the best.

All while weighing over the MW limit.

IronDanHamza

He's definitely one of the greatest LHW to lace them up.

I rank him at Middleweight but Greb is definitely one of the greatest Light Heavyweight's ever.

Barnburner

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronDanHamza

He's definitely one of the greatest LHW to lace them up.

I rank him at Middleweight but Greb is definitely one of the greatest Light Heavyweight's ever.

He wasn't bad at middle either I suppose.

When you see great LHW's lists you got:

Tunney - Greb beat
Rosenbloon - Greb Beat
Gibbons - Greb beat
Loughran - Greb beat
Delaney - Greb beat
Dillon - Greb beat
King Levinsky - Greb Beat
Carpentier - Ducked Greb

McGoorty

Be careful of rating those ND contests but mate,.. they are in no way official results, they were agreed upon that no result and many newspaper reports of the time reported the opinions straight from one fighters manager. This was due to a pathetic law in the early 1900's that almost killed boxing, it was only the diehard popularity of boxing that kept it afloat. I don't rate these ND bouts much at all, with Harry Greb I prefer to ignore all the ND results on Harry's record... that is his real record, I just think that 10 round fights are for fighters of a far lesser quality than greats like Greb. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thankfully Harry outlived the anti-boxing laws like the one that brought ND's about. The law was devised so that boxing in most states became almost exhibitions and many fight reports of these ND fights show many boring fights from un-motivated fighters, how discouraging the prospect of a half-fight must have been,........ I'm glad Darcy was spared those ND's (a small consolation,... but a consolation nonetheless). Greb is a very rare breed though, he seemed to have been motivated for thede fights than all of his contemporaries, Greb seems to have wanted to knockout everyone, he wasn't too successful in that........ One of Greb's losses must be put into context,.. having read that Mike Gibbons has a victory over Greb,,.. remember that Harry had just 12 to 14 fights,... he was a raw green kid in that first loss (I can't remember if that was a newspaper decision or not,... I just don't want to go through my paperwork at the moment).... I'm not trying to take anything from Mike, but he was not always a fighter for the crowds enjoyment, anyway if Mike was smiling after that 1st fight with Greb, he certainly didn't in their next meeting. As a MW I must rate Harry much higher than at LHW....... I don't think Greb would beat the Mongoose for example,... but I reckon he'd kill Roy Jones Jr......... How'd I do Barnburner ????

McGoorty

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barnburner

He wasn't bad at middle either I suppose.

When you see great LHW's lists you got:

Tunney - Greb beat
Rosenbloon - Greb Beat
Gibbons - Greb beat
Loughran - Greb beat
Delaney - Greb beat
Dillon - Greb beat
King Levinsky - Greb Beat
Carpentier - Ducked Greb

When did Carpentier duck Greb ??.... it's just that it's news to me....... I'm gonna look up some sources for these fights you have listed, it seems that you have been already... maybe you're not just a pretty face.... lol...

Barnburner

Quote:

Originally Posted by McGoorty

Be careful of rating those ND contests but mate,.. they are in no way official results, they were agreed upon that no result and many newspaper reports of the time reported the opinions straight from one fighters manager. This was due to a pathetic law in the early 1900's that almost killed boxing, it was only the diehard popularity of boxing that kept it afloat. I don't rate these ND bouts much at all, with Harry Greb I prefer to ignore all the ND results on Harry's record... that is his real record, I just think that 10 round fights are for fighters of a far lesser quality than greats like Greb. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thankfully Harry outlived the anti-boxing laws like the one that brought ND's about. The law was devised so that boxing in most states became almost exhibitions and many fight reports of these ND fights show many boring fights from un-motivated fighters, how discouraging the prospect of a half-fight must have been,........ I'm glad Darcy was spared those ND's (a small consolation,... but a consolation nonetheless). Greb is a very rare breed though, he seemed to have been motivated for thede fights than all of his contemporaries, Greb seems to have wanted to knockout everyone, he wasn't too successful in that........ One of Greb's losses must be put into context,.. having read that Mike Gibbons has a victory over Greb,,.. remember that Harry had just 12 to 14 fights,... he was a raw green kid in that first loss (I can't remember if that was a newspaper decision or not,... I just don't want to go through my paperwork at the moment).... I'm not trying to take anything from Mike, but he was not always a fighter for the crowds enjoyment, anyway if Mike was smiling after that 1st fight with Greb, he certainly didn't in their next meeting. As a MW I must rate Harry much higher than at LHW....... I don't think Greb would beat the Mongoose for example,... but I reckon he'd kill Roy Jones Jr......... How'd I do Barnburner ????

You have to take Newspaper reports into account to a certain exent though you can't just flat out ignore them and results form many newspapers would (for my money) be a lot more accurate than some of the judging I've seen.

McGoorty

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronDanHamza

He's definitely one of the greatest LHW to lace them up.

I rank him at Middleweight but Greb is definitely one of the greatest Light Heavyweight's ever.

Just as well you rate him at MW... lol.

Greatest1942

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barnburner

He wasn't bad at middle either I suppose.

When you see great LHW's lists you got:

Tunney - Greb beat
Rosenbloon - Greb Beat
Gibbons - Greb beat
Loughran - Greb beat
Delaney - Greb beat
Dillon - Greb beat
King Levinsky - Greb Beat
Carpentier - Ducked Greb

My standard is to rate one fighter in one division.However if I don't rate Greb at middle I will have him in the top 10 in the LHW.

McGoorty

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barnburner

You have to take Newspaper reports into account to a certain exent though you can't just flat out ignore them and results form many newspapers would (for my money) be a lot more accurate than some of the judging I've seen.

Sure, I did state state that Greb usually went very hard at it in those fights. I just put Harry's ND fights aside, there is no doubt at all that Greb's record outshines most fighters even if you take those into account. I totally agree that judging in many fights was very bad and Greb treated ND fights seriously (unlike most)... take the fight where Fulton destroyed Langford in 6 rounds, I think that was supposed to be a 10 rd ND fight and maybe Sam was expecting Fred to just go through the motions, Langford treated that fight that way but Fred wanted to annihilate Sam..... and did. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I think it's fair to say that many newspaper reports were fair, but I have read some real shockers. The best one I've ever read was "boxer major's" report of Darcy V McGoorty II,.... Boxer Major wrote some of the most passionate fight reports of them all..... You can smell the sweat and taste the blood,.. that fight report gets the hairs standing on the back of yer neck. have you read it ??...... I can post it for you if you want,.. I may have to edit one bit of non-p.c. from there..... Some of the language is not acceptable anymore, but it was 1915.

McGoorty

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greatest1942

My standard is to rate one fighter in one division.However if I don't rate Greb at middle I will have him in the top 10 in the LHW.

I'm pretty sure that you rate Greb Top 10 MW but..... he's a shoe in.

IronDanHamza All Time Great Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 17,633 Rep Power: 47 Points: 262,341,253.62 Bank: 1,656,055,610,217.15 Total Points: 1,656,317,951,470.77 Donate	He's definitely one of the greatest LHW to lace them up. I rank him at Middleweight but Greb is definitely one of the greatest Light Heavyweight's ever.