Greb vs Langford at 154

[them_apples]

I previously made a post on my greatest of all time list

However, I am not so sure who would win this bout between Greb and Langford.

We are taking 2 real fighters here. 400+ fights, loads of experience in all weight classes. Strategies for all styles. Completely numb to the nerves of fighting in the arena. Both of them suffered horrific injuries in the ring, and their longevity just shows how good they were. (Nobody can eat punches for 400 fights, nobody).

Langford just sounds like an absolute unit. Bone crushing power, strength and durability - and a style you can’t avoid. There isn’t much info on his style, but apparently he had many variations of his left hand - a deadly cobra.

Greb on the other hand has a style of his own as well, perpetual motion - once he gets going he doesn’t stop. The entire round is non stop moving and punching. (I tire more if I stop).
Greb can’t spar like this, so he just fought constantly.

[billeau2]

Yeah this would be a barn burner... Hard to predict a winner... If Sam wins it is because of physics, generating more force! If Greb wins it would be willfullness... Catching and frustrating Sam. Both of these guys are in the Hank Armstrong school of boxing... You overpower with activity, never give your opponent a break.

[JAB5239]

I previously made a post on my greatest of all time list

However, I am not so sure who would win this bout between Greb and Langford.

We are taking 2 real fighters here. 400+ fights, loads of experience in all weight classes. Strategies for all styles. Completely numb to the nerves of fighting in the arena. Both of them suffered horrific injuries in the ring, and their longevity just shows how good they were. (Nobody can eat punches for 400 fights, nobody).

Langford just sounds like an absolute unit. Bone crushing power, strength and durability - and a style you canât avoid. There isnât much info on his style, but apparently he had many variations of his left hand - a deadly cobra.

Greb on the other hand has a style of his own as well, perpetual motion - once he gets going he doesnât stop. The entire round is non stop moving and punching. (I tire more if I stop).
Greb canât spar like this, so he just fought constantly.

I lean towards Langford. His style allowed him to deal with very fast fighter such as Gans, Blackburn and Walcott, and his power was a game changer. This by no means Greb can be counted out. In my opinion these are the two best p4p fighters ever, anything is possible.

[them_apples]

I lean towards Langford. His style allowed him to deal with very fast fighter such as Gans, Blackburn and Walcott, and his power was a game changer. This by no means Greb can be counted out. In my opinion these are the two best p4p fighters ever, anything is possible.

Greb is prob my favorite fighter both in what he did and his character - but I would probably agree gun to my head Langford might get him.

it would be real close call though, any outcome wouldn’t surprise me. Greb pulled the rug out from underneath a lot of fighters. As billeau hinted at

[QueensburyRules]

I previously made a post on my greatest of all time list

However, I am not so sure who would win this bout between Greb and Langford.

We are taking 2 real fighters here. 400+ fights, loads of experience in all weight classes. Strategies for all styles. Completely numb to the nerves of fighting in the arena. Both of them suffered horrific injuries in the ring, and their longevity just shows how good they were. (Nobody can eat punches for 400 fights, nobody).

Langford just sounds like an absolute unit. Bone crushing power, strength and durability - and a style you canât avoid. There isnât much info on his style, but apparently he had many variations of his left hand - a deadly cobra.

Greb on the other hand has a style of his own as well, perpetual motion - once he gets going he doesnât stop. The entire round is non stop moving and punching. (I tire more if I stop).
Greb canât spar like this, so he just fought constantly.

- - In a trilogy, Greb's fast starting unorthodox style wins the first fight with Sam finishing stronger in an average 10 rd nontitle fight.

Sam gots Greb figured out for the next two and either beats him up or KOs him...

[Kid Cauliflower]

It is all imagination when the particulars are not known. Someone said a picture is worth a thousand words for the best of reasons. A motion picture would be worth millions of words. Some things seem safe to assume, others not. I have an 80% confidence level Langford was the stronger man period and 95% level he punched a good deal harder. For instance I don't see Greb knocking out Wills in a hundred lifetimes.

An idea of speed cannot be gleaned from the record like power. Gotta go to the subjective views of others once upon a time for that. Eyewitnesses are the worst witnesses, which someone also said. I have about an 80% confidence level that both men were genuinely fast, but I don't know how fast they were relative to each other--probably a super critical factor for the outcome.

I can easily see fans/journalists and even bucket boys etc. grabbing the handiest adverb because it happens in everyday life constantly. Fast has a lot of gears. Was Greb so fast or was his speed confused by language with the constant rapidity of vigorous application? Rapid and fast are only cousins.

In other words I trust a recorded KO more than anyone's impression of speed. Speed remains an unknown.

There is plenty of evidence both chins must have been excellent. But only one man will need it.

In my mind, as soon as Sam figures out Greb is feather-fisted, it is ballgame, unless Greb finds a similar disparity in his favor over Sam. If they are of equal speed that is bad news for Greb too. His normal blitzing game would not work, especially if Sam is one of those guys with the composure to unload under any condition like Duran, including a blitz.

Methinks Greb has to go in a big underdog. I don't see how he could be favored unless Sam is a slow poke, which he doesn't look like in the few clips.

[them_apples]

It is all imagination when the particulars are not known. Someone said a picture is worth a thousand words for the best of reasons. A motion picture would be worth millions of words. Some things seem safe to assume, others not. I have an 80% confidence level Langford was the stronger man period and 95% level he punched a good deal harder. For instance I don't see Greb knocking out Wills in a hundred lifetimes.

An idea of speed cannot be gleaned from the record like power. Gotta go to the subjective views of others once upon a time for that. Eyewitnesses are the worst witnesses, which someone also said. I have about an 80% confidence level that both men were genuinely fast, but I don't know how fast they were relative to each other--probably a super critical factor for the outcome.

I can easily see fans/journalists and even bucket boys etc. grabbing the handiest adverb because it happens in everyday life constantly. Fast has a lot of gears. Was Greb so fast or was his speed confused by language with the constant rapidity of vigorous application? Rapid and fast are only cousins.

In other words I trust a recorded KO more than anyone's impression of speed. Speed remains an unknown.

There is plenty of evidence both chins must have been excellent. But only one man will need it.

In my mind, as soon as Sam figures out Greb is feather-fisted, it is ballgame, unless Greb finds a similar disparity in his favor over Sam. If they are of equal speed that is bad news for Greb too. His normal blitzing game would not work, especially if Sam is one of those guys with the composure to unload under any condition like Duran, including a blitz.

Methinks Greb has to go in a big underdog. I don't see how he could be favored unless Sam is a slow poke, which he doesn't look like in the few clips.

I will say this though

every newspaper article on Greb seemed to really emphasize the mans speed

everyone that faced him said this as well

just an overwhelming volume of high velocity punches that come from knowhere

never count a man out with 300+ fights

[Kid Cauliflower]

There is peak physical prime and then there is reaching your peak as boxer, which usually comes a little later with more experience, from my observations.

Any version of Greb and Langford able to fight comfortably and at their best at 154 seems like pure fiction and misleading. That is the number of fights they ended up with.

The point is that at that juncture they would certainly not have 400+ fights between them, so you should maybe stop using that one. I don't know that both men had even reached their best when they were able to make 154 comfortably. I think the format should simply read "at their best" without stipulating a weight. They are of similar poundage naturally anyway. What is so special about 154 other than they will both have younger bodies? That is no guarantee they would be in their boxing primes at that weight. 160 would seem a closer bet--about the time Sam was angling for Ketchel and Greb was picking up the middleweight title.

You probably have a closer account of the two career trajectories than I do. Explain about 154.

[JAB5239]

I will say this though

every newspaper article on Greb seemed to really emphasize the mans speed

everyone that faced him said this as well

just an overwhelming volume of high velocity punches that come from knowhere

never count a man out with 300+ fights

I just trained with Petchtanong Petchfergus this past Saturday. He's had over 400 muay thai and kickboxing fights. Was the One featherweight champion and will get a shot again very soon. But the ease that he did things......we train and if you've trained for a decent amount of time a lot comes instinctively, but sometimes you have to think about what you're going to do next. Guys with that many fights it's just second nature. Anything you threw he not only avoided, but knew instantly how to counter. I imagine it was the same with Greb. He was a nonstop punching machine, but I have the feeling he could feel or anticipate what his opponents were going to do as well and helped him be more successful. No proof of that, just an observation from working with a guy (different combat sport) with hundreds of fights.

[cfang]

Quite confident of a grab points win here. It's just likely he's more active than Langford. Langford looks very tough and strong and clearly hits hard but he's a little basic. I would suspect Greg would be quick enough and active enough to win on pts. Grab was pretty much unstoppable too so. Would be a great fight tho between two all time top 5 p4p boxers