“I wouldn’t say he was soiled a lot as he was expedient. He was so desirous to get the harm accomplished that his head and shoulders went with a punch. He was a quick and livid man. Chuck Wiggins nevertheless, was a actual soiled fighter, a reckless character. He didn’t care what he did.” –Tommy Loughran
“He has been criticized significantly these days for his ring performances. I attribute that largely to the peculiar model he makes use of and never any deliberate intent to foul.” —Mike Gibbons
“I categorically state that Harry Greb was not a foul fighter. In my first battle with him my nostril was damaged. My seconds mentioned that Greb butted me together with his head. This I don’t settle for as factual; and if his head was the weapon, relatively than his fists, my head shouldn’t have been the place it was.” –Gene Tunney
When boxing historians catalogue the “dirtiest” fighters of all-time, Harry Greb’s identify all the time appears to make the checklist, normally within the prime 5, proper alongside such well-known foulsters as Sandy Saddler, Mysterious Billy Smith (undoubtedly the king of all-time filthy fighters), and fellow Pittsburgher Fritzie Zivic. However does he actually deserve it? Is Greb’s place amongst boxing’s sinister elite a justifiable one? Was he actually a grimy fighter, or is it a nasty rap? The query bears a deeper examination.
Most of Greb’s fame for being a grimy fighter comes from the sensationalized and myth-filled e-book by James Truthful, entitled Give Him to the Angels, a piece so stuffed with exaggerations and outright lies that it was pulled from the cabinets after just one printing attributable to threats of lawsuits by Greb’s household. Regardless, the harm was accomplished; the falsehoods within the e-book had been dedicated to reminiscence and handed all the way down to succeeding generations of battle followers who had nowhere else to go to get data on the late “Pittsburgh Windmill.”
However we reside in a time when detailed data on Greb from firsthand sources is available to all who search it. Many opponents said for the file that Greb was extra tough than soiled, and a better have a look at his profession reveals that not solely was Harry not one of many prime 5 soiled fighters of all-time, however he might not have even been one of many prime 5 soiled fighters of his time. However the decrease weight divisions, there have been three fighters at light-heavyweight and heavyweight alone who outstripped Harry within the space of foul combating, they being Chuck Wiggins, Child Norfolk and Captain Bob Roper.
All issues added up, these charming gents boasted a mixed 19 disqualification losses amongst them attributable to soiled combating. Greb himself had just one and that towards Norfolk, who was a de facto soiled fighter and who many really feel ought to have been the one thrown out of the ring that night time, not Greb.
It’s usually conceded that the blindness in Harry’s proper eye was attributable to thumbs in his bouts with Norfolk and Roper. Norfolk was thought to have began the harm of their 1921 swatfest and Greb complained of blurred imaginative and prescient following the match. But it surely was a 12 months later, after combating Roper, that Greb was seen sporting patches over each eyes following his nasty bout with the Captain.
It was shortly after these battles that Greb turned extra noticeably responsible of the “soiled” cost positioned upon him, largely attributable to his incessant holding and hitting. This was little doubt attributable to Harry having misplaced his depth notion due to his blind eye, and he needed to have a hand on his opponent so as to find him correctly for a blow. All in all, it’s superb {that a} half-blind fighter can have as a lot success as Greb did.
It’s additionally value noting, as Gibbons did, that Greb’s model was a significant factor on this. His erratic, if not reckless, mode of boxing and ways of continuous aggression little doubt resulted in some unintended fouls. How might that not occur every so often, given the way in which Greb fought? As I wrote in an earlier article: “Harry was most frequently described as a ‘wildcat,’ attributable to his boundless aggression, and as a ‘kangaroo’ due to his occasional leaping assault and retreat ways.”
That mentioned, the very fact stays that matchless pace, unimaginable stamina, limitless creativeness and uncanny improvisational expertise — amongst many different attributes — ought to be Harry Greb’s legacy within the sport, not exaggerated expenses of soiled combating taken from nebulous sources similar to apocryphal autopsy biographies penned solely to make an affordable buck. The parable-busting data is on the market if one is occupied with figuring out the reality in regards to the conqueror of Walker, Loughran, Flowers and Tunney, a boxer who is certainly one of many biggest of all-time, pound-for-pound.
— Douglas Cavanaugh
