I know statistically we have to respect Harry grebb but there's no video footage of the guy so how can we really tell. All we have is other peoples accounts.
I agree that too much emphasis is put on the careers of the early 20th century fighters.
So as a history major I want to counter that logic by going back even further and looking at some of the great pioneers of the 18th and 19th centuries, because we know about as much of them as Harry grebb.
For example why not include john broughton? He was the undefeated boxing champion of England for 20 years in two reigns. But he fought in the 18th century so not a lot of info there.
Or tom cribb, world champ of the 19th century, beating the great american champion tom molineaux in the fight of the century, and also his pioneering trainer bill Richmond ( A natural welterweight whose footwork was so good he often fought heavyweights during his era).
We have newspaper reports to go off tom cribb in the same manner as Harry grebb, so why shouldn't he rank as high?
Oh, America had fighters at the Olympics?
...never realised.
i don't know if you watched the fights, but joshua won on a countback and a straight up robbery in the opening round. he almost certainly wouldn't be a gold medalist if those games weren't in the shire.
he is not nearly as talented. joshua got a real gift decision along the way (maybe two, i haven't watched his fights since they happened and they were close,) but the kid won gold. you can expect the more talented gold medalist to get all of the attention.
heavy hands on brazeale, but i don't expect much from him. these big guys are getting such a late start in boxing these days. other sports draw them in when they're young.
looks like he's fighting nagy aguilera in a couple weeks. i assume breazeale didn't have an extensive amateur career based on what i've read about him so that's good to see him not taking the deontay wilder approach and testing himself early. i mean aguilera ain't a world-beater or anything, but its a significant step up from the guys breazeale has fought