one of boxing's biggest shames, no footage of the Grebster

[boxingking500]

Harry Greb, arguably the greatest boxer to ever fight (one can make an argument that he is p4p #1, better then SRR)

and it just sucks that there is no footage of him, his style of boxing, his skills, NONE.. all we know is that he beat some really tough dudes, and we have footage of those guys..

[Barn]

Harry Greb, arguably the greatest boxer to ever fight (one can make an argument that he is p4p #1, better then SRR)

and it just sucks that there is no footage of him, his style of boxing, his skills, NONE.. all we know is that he beat some really tough dudes, and we have footage of those guys..

"The Grebster"

[Ray Corso]

There no footage in the Jimmy Jacobs archives? I would think there is. Ray

[Barn]

There no footage in the Jimmy Jacobs archives? I would think there is. Ray

Nope, not that anyone knows of. If anyone has it it's in the hands of private collectors not willing to share or even let us know they have it.

The only footage of him made public is a training video in preparation for the Mickey Walker fight.

[raf727]

ive been just completely fascinating with this guy since i found out about him, and since he is from pittsburgh. there is a little footage on a website of him hitting bags and shadowboxing, but no actual fight footage exists that is known.

[Sugarj]

There no footage in the Jimmy Jacobs archives? I would think there is. Ray

No. The story goes that Jacobs received a note accompanying various films. The note was labelled 'Greb vs Tunney'. But the film wasn't to be found. A big search ensued but to no avail.

There was a reported viewing of a Greb fight in 1978 for a select group of enthusiasts. I read a report some time ago by one of the attendees, the film was quite difficult viewing due to deterioration of the film itself. If it still exists it might be unwatchable.

One will show up someday. Several of his fights were filmed. A relative of a deceased collector or some library/university will have something, but no one will be aware of it.

I hate to say this, but I've got a gut feeling that it is probably better that nothing is ever found. Greb's legend is better without fight film.

[GJC]

No. The story goes that Jacobs received a note accompanying various films. The note was labelled 'Greb vs Tunney'. But the film wasn't to be found. A big search ensued but to no avail.

There was a reported viewing of a Greb fight in 1978 for a select group of enthusiasts. I read a report some time ago by one of the attendees, the film was quite difficult viewing due to deterioration of the film itself. If it still exists it might be unwatchable.

One will show up someday. Several of his fights were filmed. A relative of a deceased collector or some library/university will have something, but no one will be aware of it.

I hate to say this, but I've got a gut feeling that it is probably better that nothing is ever found. Greb's legend is better without fight film.

Problem is if there are any films they would have had to have backed it up by now else it won't have survived. The training film there is of Greb was Only discovered in the 90s I believe. I think it was found unlabelled at an American university or college or something.
Difficult as to think that he might look unimpressive and have feet of clay. That said we love this sport and to never see possibly it's finest exponent in action is a hell of an irony. Bit like the greatest poet in the world never having written anything down.

[GJC]

Problem is if there are any films they would have had to have backed it up by now else it won't have survived. The training film there is of Greb was Only discovered in the 90s I believe. I think it was found unlabelled at an American university or college or something.
Difficult as to think that he might look unimpressive and have feet of clay. That said we love this sport and to never see possibly it's finest exponent in action is a hell of an irony. Bit like the greatest poet in the world never having written anything down.

Strange thing is, when I was a kid back in the dinosaur age there was a friend of my fathers who used to work for pathe news as an editor. And he'd get whole fight films and edit them down for newsreels. He'd done it for years and had kept a hell of a collection. As you can imagine My father and I spent many an afternoon at his home and whilst this was over sixty years ago I do have vague recollections of fights. Might be an old mans imagination but when I read old fight reports very vivid images do come into my mind.
Just rambling put it down to Alzheimers memories

Do remember an old timer when I was a kid swearing he'd seen Greb fight live. I wrote it off as bull as to my then knowledge Greb had never left America and this guy had certainly never left London. Then a few years back I found Greb fought at The Albert Hall during WWI.

[Sugarj]

Problem is if there are any films they would have had to have backed it up by now else it won't have survived. The training film there is of Greb was Only discovered in the 90s I believe. I think it was found unlabelled at an American university or college or something.
Difficult as to think that he might look unimpressive and have feet of clay. That said we love this sport and to never see possibly it's finest exponent in action is a hell of an irony. Bit like the greatest poet in the world never having written anything down.

To be fair though, the training footage discovered in the 90s looks very good in terms of clarity, a fight film stored as well would not look much worse. Hell, I've seen some really grainy Jack Johnson fights..........even some footage of Corbett vs Fitzimmons which predates Greb's prime by what? 25 years?

My prediction is that something will eventually show up, but we might end up being disappointed with the results.

[New England]

lol

the grebster!

it is a shame, brother


there's always a chance there's some stuff out there that somebody is sitting on, either knowingly or otherwise


clips of robinson at WW have shown up in the last ten years i believe.
there may still be some more complete fights out there


especially with a famous fighter like greb
he was no burley
he was a very famous figure

even though people werent thinking about boxers in these terms, he was certainly the p4p king during some of his prime, considering his resume at 160 and 175