“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 type 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 struggle with him my nostril was damaged. My seconds stated that Greb butted me together with his head. This I don’t settle for as factual; and if his head was the weapon, fairly than his fists, my head mustn’t have been the place it was.” –Gene Tunney
When boxing historians catalogue the “dirtiest” fighters of all-time, Harry Greb’s identify at all times appears to make the checklist, often within the high 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 in reality a unclean fighter, or is it a foul rap? The query bears a deeper examination.
Most of Greb’s popularity for being a unclean 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 struggle followers who had nowhere else to go to get info on the late “Pittsburgh Windmill.”
However we reside in a time when detailed info on Greb from firsthand sources is available to all who search it. Many opponents acknowledged for the report that Greb was extra tough than soiled, and a better take a look at his profession reveals that not solely was Harry not one of many high 5 soiled fighters of all-time, however he could not have even been one of many high 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 typically 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. Nevertheless it was a yr 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, principally attributable to his incessant holding and hitting. This was little question attributable to Harry having misplaced his depth notion due to his blind eye, and he needed to have a hand on his opponent as a way to find him correctly for a blow. All in all, it’s wonderful {that a} half-blind fighter can have as a lot success as Greb did.
It’s additionally price noting, as Gibbons did, that Greb’s type was a significant component on this. His erratic, if not reckless, mode of boxing and ways of continuous aggression little question resulted in some unintended fouls. How might that not occur on occasion, 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 stated, the actual fact stays that matchless velocity, unbelievable stamina, limitless creativeness and uncanny improvisational abilities — amongst many different attributes — must be Harry Greb’s legacy within the sport, not exaggerated fees of soiled combating taken from nebulous sources reminiscent of apocryphal autopsy biographies penned solely to make an affordable buck. The parable-busting info is on the market if one is involved in figuring out the reality concerning the conqueror of Walker, Loughran, Flowers and Tunney, a boxer who is definitely one of many best of all-time, pound-for-pound.
— Douglas Cavanaugh
