@@Joseph._odk 💯, that’s why generations of boxer shouldn’t be compared. Men back then might not have been as athletic but they were stronger mentally. No fighter in this era is getting more than 100 fights or fighting more than 3-4 fights a year
The man helping Harry in his training, holding his feet while Harry does sit-ups and back-rolls is none other than the great Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, the former light heavyweight champion from the early 1900's. He is also fired sparring with Harry at the 4:55 mark and playing handball with Greb at the 5:06 mark. A "rare" video of two great fighters from two different time periods, training together. O'Brien had already been retired by several years when this video was made, but still believed in keeping physically fit. Greb was a "Super Star" middleweight fighter, perhaps one of the Top 5 Greatest Evers in middleweight fighters in any time period. Thanks for this rare video of two legends in boxing from the early days of boxing.
Experts reckon he should've won 2 perhaps even 3 drawn 1 and possibly lost 2 in the biographies i've read based on newspaper boxing journalists opinions that is.Considering how much he was outweighed and out-measured by the tale of the tape it is pretty outstanding an achievement against a hall of fame'r like Tunney.
as far as i know tunney used his instincts in his first 2 fights and lost,then after advise from benny leanord(one of the greatest mastermind of the sport) advised tunney to go to body instead of just repeatedly aiming at the head,hence greb was outwitted by tunney and proceeded to lose the rest of them against tunney.tunney was slightly better than greb in my opinion
300+ fights this dude is the best middleweight of the last century and this one, very good form in his boxing people knew how to fucking swarm back in the day thats for sure.
I wonder if that style would work well today jumping in and out throwing a flurry of punches in combinations effectively ,I know it would dictate the tempo of any fight if done as well as Harry Greb used to do it.
@@richwiz2Well not really bigger. Guys in the past in sports never carry extra weight if they didn't have to, so they keep their athletic abilities guys now will make the weight limit but will blow up in weight after the fight with either food or water to have an "advantage" in weight in the fight which actually hinders their performance/athletic abilities. Also the type of training guys did in the past vs now played a roll the way the look.
Met a guy while golfing in Ft. Myers Florida about 7 years ago. Retired commodities broker from Cal. Claimed that he had a Grub film but had to sell it to cover his losses one year.
Supposedly, the Greb Tunney fight was filmed, but there is no confirmation of it. The newspapers at the time said it was filmed, and collectors have been looking for that for 80+ years. It is literally the Holy Grail of lost films.
@@colinhiggins4779 Our father, a WW2, veteran was surprised when I told him that Greb defeated Tunney who went on to defeat Dempsey. Young people do not realize that Dempsey was the Tyson of his era and that Greb, middleweight champ, looked excellent in sparring with this monster and tried to get a title shot against Dempsey. Love reading about this era because scientific boxing emerged and removed boxing from its bareknuckle period. Greb was the real deal and it's a shame no fight film exists. Look up his record and the records of the men he competed against and one should be amazed. I was and still am.
This was a nasty fighter right here! Fighters back in those days always stayed in fighting shape because they fought so many times in a year: sometimes up to 15-20 times. And what is considered "B" level back in those days would easily be championship A level today. It's mastery of skills through repetition in a high risk environment (a fight) versus simply sparring and using modern training technology (today).
Harambe Mane Boxing is the exception, it has regressed, the art of in fighting has been lost and fighters today or the last 50 years wouldn't know how to handle the expert inside fighters of the old eras.
Harambe Mane Correct, I am a huge fan of the hands of stone and he did so well because of his expert inside fighting, no one during his time or today could match it, but fighters from even the 1800s had better inside fighting because of the knowledge and evolution of it from London prize ring rules to Marquess of Queensbury rules because these guys dedicated their lives and trained everyday to perfect their craft. The only fighters who were as dedicated as those from the past eras became all time greats like Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Roberto Duran Marvin Hagler etc
The greatest P4P fighter ever, he ducked no one, many ducked him and only fought him at the end of his career yet he still won, he cut Tunney to bits and apparently won the 2nd as well, Dempsey and Carpentier both avoided him,
Rocky fish I would put him at either 2nd or 3rd with Henry Armstrong. Those two were very hard to tell who was better. Harry Greb is certainly one of the greatest however. Sugar Ray Robinson at 1st however.
I’d put Greb or Langford at #1. Armstrong or Gans at #3. Robinson fits in somewhere between 5-10. I think SRR is one of the greatest ever but tends to be overrated in the P4P rankings as he’s always voted #1 fashionably.
@@milesmccoy2976 he’s always voted #1 pound for pound because the term “pound for pound” was made for him , he was the first 5x middleweight champion , he was able to do things most fighters can’t do , most of his opponents he lost to he had a rematch with and won and he’s the first to make boxing beautiful but I do agree sometimes people gotta give him another spot but that doesn’t mean he’s not held in a very special place
4:28 The sparring here is amazing...you can see how good he was at parrying his opponent's punches with his gloves and how he gained confidence from forcing his opponent to waste energy. Very animalistic style.
Kind of crazy to see an old school fighter have that “drain his energy” style that was something more brought famous by Ali except Ali involved rope a dope
@@Uuyrijies1123 again, he showed nothing special in terms of technique here. Moreover, his overall technique is outdated by modern boxing standards, it's clear for me that his high number of fights and wins has to do with boxing still being young and developing in 1920s, the overall level of boxers was much lower, even though many were talented.
@@namethis658 Sure, the era that Greb fought in definitely isn’t advanced in terms of technique. But you have to take into account that Greb, for his time and era, defeated great HOFs, such as Gene Tunney, Tommy Loughran, Tommy Gibbons, Jack Dillon, Gunboat Smith, Kid Norfolk, Maxie Rosenbloom, Mickey Walker, Jimmy Slattery etc. These guys were the best of the best in their era, and Greb beat them all. You also have to take into account that he gave up more weight to his opponents from 10 to 50 pounds on a regular basis. It isn’t fair to judge a fighters ranking by their technique, because in the future, the guys we used to rate so high like Robinson, Ali, Floyd, (their opinion not mine) and many more are going to be in the top 100s. Which is why rating a fighter by their accomplishments and resumes seems more fair to me, and certainly makes them be remembered in history.
That face wears the marks of every one of those hundreds of fights but the rest of him is made of iron. The contrast to our contemporary pampered fighters is stark.
It's great that we still have a film like this to put some flesh to the images but a tragedy that we don't have any of him fighting. Film of Greb fighting anybody would be worth a stack but if anybody out there has film of any of the Tunney- Greb fights sat up in their attic or in a dusty box wrapped in old newspaper in their basement (and it''s a strong possibility) they are sitting on the Holy Grail. I believe that some film will surface at some point but as to which fight/s it might be ...who knows? Greb was a beast - no doubt about it. People may think that training, technique and conditioning are better today than they were back then and they're right. But fighters were tougher back then and there were more of them and you don't survive 300 fights in that era, often fighting one or two divisions above your weight , unless you are something special.
TheSmithDorian The condtioning was better back then because you won't find no one being able to fight 15 rounds except maybe Floyd Mayweather and maybe Pacqiuao and even then I don't think they can do it several times weeks apart. Fighters back then would RUN 8-15 miles mixing it with sprints and no stopping throughout everyday, chop wood for hours, pound the bag for an hour, shadow box up to 40 rounds, skip for an hour, do all sorts of body weight exercises, spar 10-15 rounds or more, all in one day! Todays fighters training regime would be something like this: JOG 4-6 miles Go to the gym lift some weights Go to the boxing gym and 6 rounds on the bad, 20 mins skipping, 6-8 rounds of sparring, 5 rounds of the pads and some ground work. The old school were FAR more well conditioned and fit and much stronger mentally. I'm currently an amateur boxer and I can vouch for this.
MultiGreat1 I should have said that conditioning was more scientific rather than that the boxers today are better conditioned. You're correct in what you say about the fighters of Greb's era. Also they fought almost constantly throughout their careers. They didn't have a big fight and then wait 9 - 12 months before their next one. Interesting statistic;Number of rounds fought per year averaged out over their pro careers; Mayweather 20 Rounds / Year Pac Man 21 Rounds / Year Greb 77 Rounds / Year I also boxed for 3 years as an amateur myself many moons ago. Getting hit hurts a lot more when your on the end of it than it does on the TV doesn't it - especially body shots. :)
+rick rich there were actually 8 weight classes at this particular moment in time (heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight, bantamweight, and flyweight) Actually, from 1922-1924 there were technically 11 weight classes. Junior welterweight, junior lightweight, and junior featherweight were in existence, but they weren't as popular and widely accepted as the original eight. Jf disappeared from 1924-1976, JL disappeared from 1934-1949, and JW disappeared from 1935-1946. There are 17 weight classes today. Back then you could be 165 lbs. and fighting as a light-heavyweight or 150 lbs. and fighting as a middleweight, without the help of divisions such as super middleweight (168 lbs.) or junior middleweight (154 lbs.)
Wow amazing.. Just read a great article in this week’s Boxing News (Feb 9 2023) about Harry.. Truly remarkable Boxer by all accounts.. Shame there’s not any footage of his bouts..
If he had never fought Tunney he would NEVER have gotten any recognition. I read about him and I know it's true that many belted champions and rising fighters didn't want a fight with him. Seeing him in this video I know he loves to f'n fight.
Maybe not by modern fans but there is a legitimate argument that can be made that Tunney's fights with Greb are what laid the foundation for his legacy. By the time that they fought, Greb was a long well established name in the sport, especially after his wins over Tommy Gibbons. One of which was supposed to be for a shot at Dempsey's title. That's why they filmed the first Greb/Tunney fight because it was a huge deal. So when Tunney was able to grow and overcome Greb in their fight series that meant something, because no one had really had that level of success against Greb. Even though Greb had been declining and Tunney used a lot of political pressure to force Greb to fight conservative, after their last fight Tunney had established himself as the best fighter in the sport.
@@jeffason69 You don't need to see someone fight to know how great he was. His legacy is set. We talk about the greatness of figures much older than him, solely based on legacy and history. We talk about the greatness of the Roman Empire, not because we witnessed it, but because history has so much to say about it.
The middleweight equivalent of Jack Dempsey, Harry Greb was an all time top 5 pound for pound best. He once fought 45 fights in 1919 alone! And won them all! If a prime Mike Tyson was transported back in time Greb would have probably fought him (granted Tyson's power & ferocity would have flattened him in less than 3 rounds). Greb was as courageous as he was formidable, skilled & prolific. One of the Greatest! Only Hagler, Monzon & Sugar Ray Robinson were at his level of sheer stupendous ability as middleweight champions. Greb's raw toughness was of another era, another time, another world. The guy probably ate nails for breakfast!
this footage needs to be taken with heaps of salt in terms of what boxers of the times training regimen looked like. for one, the film was taken on a bulky ass tripod with limited capture window, filming training sessions for marketing purposes wasnt really a thing, and the “sparring” was literally greb dicking around with his 50 year old trainer on top of a roof, sparring back then was just like today, in ring, round by round with headgear, and boxers and trainers had sophisticated systems even back then, they were concious of nutrition, they did a plethora of aerobic and anaerobic workouts and a plethora of boxing drills, on top of sparring and running, working the heavybag, speed bag, reflex bag etc. really pure boxing training hasnt changed much at all in the past 100 years
@edernomelenko oh stop. Greb was great but his shadow boxing is rudimentary and spastic. Techniques and abilities have multiplied so much It is like a totally different sport
@@thegadflygang5381glad I wasn’t the only one to see an issue with the shadow boxing. The sport has changed. Maybe there is something we are missing. An ability to regain your balance? He threw we very lunch like he’d missed.
I love to see these great legends on the treasured few films of them! They used a ping pong to train hand/eye coordination and speed just like Rocky with them chickens, a clever low cost idea. The “Pittsburgh Windmill” must have been very gifted to beat the great Gene Tunney and with only one good eye too!
Because his opponents were way less qualified. Look at his sparring, that's the level of an amateur boxer, he'd get his ass handled to him on an average European boxing championship today.
@@namethis658 now watch this “sparring” footage and imagine if Manny Pacquiao had a “sparring” session with Freddie Roach lol his coach was 50 years old and they were on a rooftop with no headgear, sparring back then was just like today, in fact we have footage of Mickey Walker in a real sparring session and it looks like a sparring session youd see today. and even dicking around you see Greb parrying, rolling, pivoting, setting up clean shots from weird angles while pulling all his punches.
Its about the function you look at the light sparring some would say it looks goofy cause he's got 1920s swag but he's constantly pivoting, feinting, parrying and looking for counters all in balance on the balls of his feet head never in the same spot. And this is him playing around he had those skills just burned into him
It's called evolution. Mordern days high jumper, long jumper, track runners etc records are better for a reason. Because mordern day athletes learned it from the old era athletes. It's how sports evolves.
@@pongnakalohan887 things can also devolve. Plus, you're talking about sports that take one skill set. Boxing is many and not only just physical skills.
@@pongnakalohan887 except boxing didnt evolve like other sports, because boxers fight substantially less, competition has become so convoluted its hardly a sport, very spotty film records of the greatest eras, and the greatest trainers of these eras mostly died with their knowledge. it cant be compared to sports that are more active than ever, have a deeper participation than ever and maintained a true competitive landscape consistently. professional boxing peaked in the early-middle 20th century and has seriously declined in the 21st century
His shadow boxing looks so unusual (almost wierd). I would have love to see how exactly he pull of so many boxing wins. Especially the one against gene tunney with his unusual style.
First person player apparently he moved constantly throwing punches from every angle imaginable, probably was great in the clinch being blind in one eye and just smashed away
Loving the cross-training with the modified raquetball (using pads on each hand vs using a raquet), probably works well on your reflexes, hip rotation and being ambidextrous.
Not quite sure, but I believe that the guy training & sparring with him is "Philadelphia" Jack O'Brien, ex Light-Heavyweight champion and himself a Hall of Famer.....
This is amazing. I had read years ago that no tape of Greb existed, even training. This was one rough dude who would clean up today on guys anywhere from 160-200. Thanks for the upload.
+Sujit Sharma skinny? harry greb was skinny? lol what? stfu you scrawny kid, greb destroyed ton of heavyweights. Greb has beaten more hall of famers than any other boxer. Tell me, how many hof boxers have you beat?
The way they describe Harry Greb's fighting style I imagine a fighting style similar to Pacquiao but with better fundamentals and even great in-fighting skills.
According to the 2 biographies of him I've read (and the accounts therein of fighters who fought him), I think Greb was like a mixture of Joe Calzaghe (hundreds of punches) + Aaron Pryor (crazy footwork to close in) + Henry Armstrong (stamina that got better as rounds went on) + he had a ton of weird flexibility in his waist (I'm thinking he had a bobbing style reminiscent of Joe Frazier/Jack Dempsey/Henry Hank) + he had VERY fast feet and fast hands, and the obvious in-fighting grappling that many old fighters knew back then. From what I read, many old timers back then used to call his footwork Kangaroo-like / Jack-in-the-box which (picturing it and seeing him move around in this video) meant that he was likely a fighter always down in some type of fast moving crouch and leapt from strange angles at his opponents. Jack Dempsey called him a very strange fighter when he sparred him (saying that it felt like walking into a boxing glove factory and having rolls of gloves fall on you from all over...but none of the punches hurt). And Jack Johnson said that he was one of the quickest boys he's ever sparred against when Greb was a teenager.
Looks funny but wont be funny when he does that stuff to people in the ring. People used to walk out of the fight with cuts and bruises all over their face.
@@nordicwarriorgaming4953 All of his fight films were either lost or damaged beyond repair. The only information on him are from previous accounts, records, and quotes from other fighters and historians. Though what I stated was a fact, he wasn't named the Human Windmill for no reason, his aggressive swarming style has a pace and punch volume on the same level of Henry Armstrong, though he possessed far greater speed and could punch from various unorthodox angles. Harry Greb is responsible for the only loss on Gene Tunney's record of 65-1 and gave him one of the worst beatings of his entire career. A broken nose, cuts on both sides of his eyes, a face covered with blood by the end of the fight, Tunney was hospitalized despite the taller and bigger fighter. Aside from that, on his documented boxing record, he fought light-heavyweights, heavyweights, and cruiserweights despite being naturally being middleweight, although the heaviest he ever weigh for a fight was around 170, he often did fight against larger and heavier opponents. He won against 15 Hall of Fame inducted Boxers and retired with 261-17-19
How would Greb manage Les Darcy? There was an opportunity for both men to fight each when Darcy arrived in America during 1917. Darcy's premature death and the politics of war stopped that from happening.
"Todays advancements" aren't superior to an environment where you can get 20 fights a year and plenty of talent to make a name off of, all of the weight lifting, s and c , nutrition programs is only tertiary compared to actual experience in boxing and traditional boxing training like how a pitcher and batter dont get great by their other workouts and supplements but by competing against other great pitchers and batters and developing and honing those skills
nice upload,he died a year later aged 32 while having an operation on his nose in order for him to breath better,after complications he never awoke from the anesthetic
La operacion fue en la vista. Peleó ciego de un ojo mucho tiempo. La intervención fue para tratar de corregir eso. Un año mas tarde, su viejo rival Tiger Flowers fallecio de las mismas causas. Nunca despertó de la anestesia luego de operarse de la vista... The operation was in sight. He fought blind in one eye long. The intervention was to try to correct that. A year later, his old rival Tiger Flowers died of the same causes. He never woke up from anesthesia after eye surgery ...
32 World Champions Beaten By 29 Years Old. AND HE WAS BLIND IN ONE FREAKING EYE
@@Infam0usKiller 😂😂😂😂 in modern era (from 1970) floyd is a great but back then fighters fought more often, u cant compare newschool boxers to them
@@Joseph._odk 💯, that’s why generations of boxer shouldn’t be compared. Men back then might not have been as athletic but they were stronger mentally. No fighter in this era is getting more than 100 fights or fighting more than 3-4 fights a year
Brocklyn,when Greb fought it was 8 champions to beat,when Floyd fought there was 64 to choose beteween.
@@drewtheboxer5125 boxers back in old times were more warrior than athletes, they were built to endure extremely busy schedule all around the year
I think he beat 18 not 32 but very impressive
Thank You!
Harry was my Grandfather’s Uncle. Neat to see this video and learn more about family.
That's really something to be proud of...
WOOOW!
Thank you for the info that is something to be proud of.Your grandpas uncle was a legend!
@@rivermoore6179 Ew always a simp somewhere
He is considered one of the greatest in history even above Mayweather and Mike Tyson.
wow wow u should teach ur son boxing
Thanks for the footage. One of the greatest no doubt
Boxing Legends TV He beat Gene Tunney's face in and Jack Dempsey ran from him.
Boxing Legends TV This is some pretty rare footage.
I heard it was one of the worst beatings ever in history as the ring was a pool of blood
@@RaulsTacos damn man he beat the great Tunney
He looks like Nick Diaz 4:10
Thanks for the upload. I'm more motivated by the pioneers of the boxing sport than today's boxers. 🥊
The man helping Harry in his training, holding his feet while Harry does sit-ups and back-rolls is none other than the great Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, the former light heavyweight champion from the early 1900's. He is also fired sparring with Harry at the 4:55 mark and playing handball with Greb at the 5:06 mark. A "rare" video of two great fighters from two different time periods, training together. O'Brien had already been retired by several years when this video was made, but still believed in keeping physically fit. Greb was a "Super Star" middleweight fighter, perhaps one of the Top 5 Greatest Evers in middleweight fighters in any time period. Thanks for this rare video of two legends in boxing from the early days of boxing.
Harry greb, the best of the best, he had enormous endurance , heart and stamina
Harry Greb, " The Human Windmill" threw punches from all angles. he was bad!!
Watching and learning all I can of Greb, I'm also a blind in the right eye fighter. This man was incredible!
This man had hundreds of fights in his short career and just loved to fight! Represented his era well!
Greb was very athletic, moved extremely well.
There should be a film made of this incredible fighters life and times
Lost his wife early, blind on the right eye this time, such an impressive life-story. In boxing he probably was far ahead of his time.
it sure look that way dempsey was scared
is it a movie
he taking on srr would have been great
Robert Walter for head to the 1940s lol after 5hat he will get murder
He's top 3 behind Sam Langford and Joe Lewis and this dude retired at 29....imagine that
His old man trainer is a really impressive athlete.
And hats off to the only guy who beat Gene Tunney in the ring.
Yeah I'm pissed that there is no existing footage of the guy's fights. Would've loved to see him in action.
Experts reckon he should've won 2 perhaps even 3 drawn 1 and possibly lost 2 in the biographies i've read based on newspaper boxing journalists opinions that is.Considering how much he was outweighed and out-measured by the tale of the tape it is pretty outstanding an achievement against a hall of fame'r like Tunney.
as far as i know tunney used his instincts in his first 2 fights and lost,then after advise from benny leanord(one of the greatest mastermind of the sport) advised tunney to go to body instead of just repeatedly aiming at the head,hence greb was outwitted by tunney and proceeded to lose the rest of them against tunney.tunney was slightly better than greb in my opinion
@@darkpewdiepie851 Not in their primes
dark pewdiepie slightly better sure considering he was bigger than Greb anyway
I used to have a biography on him called Give Him to the Angels. Excellent book.
300+ fights this dude is the best middleweight of the last century and this one, very good form in his boxing people knew how to fucking swarm back in the day thats for sure.
Look at how he trained!!! Beautiful!!!!!!
I wonder if that style would work well today jumping in and out throwing a flurry of punches in combinations effectively ,I know it would dictate the tempo of any fight if done as well as Harry Greb used to do it.
He was more then a swarmer ,he was it he knew everything that's why he beat nearly everyone HE DUCKED NO ONE AND HE RETIRED AT FREAKING 29
What a perfect physique on Greb, wow. People are bigger today, but not as tough, IMO.
@@richwiz2Well not really bigger. Guys in the past in sports never carry extra weight if they didn't have to, so they keep their athletic abilities guys now will make the weight limit but will blow up in weight after the fight with either food or water to have an "advantage" in weight in the fight which actually hinders their performance/athletic abilities. Also the type of training guys did in the past vs now played a roll the way the look.
Handball! Now that is old school! Love it!
And what great way to train for boxing!
One of the greatest middleweights and ranked one of the meanest fighters of all time.
Harry greb had great fittness he never stood still for a second and never stopped throwing punches had an iron chin ands heart .
The Holy Grail of boxing is to find actual film footage of a Greb bout. After all of these years any film has probably deteriorated.
Met a guy while golfing in Ft. Myers Florida about 7 years ago. Retired commodities broker from Cal. Claimed that he had a Grub film but had to sell it to cover his losses one year.
Supposedly, the Greb Tunney fight was filmed, but there is no confirmation of it. The newspapers at the time said it was filmed, and collectors have been looking for that for 80+ years. It is literally the Holy Grail of lost films.
@@robertgerwig1388 If he told the truth where is it? Private collector?
@@colinhiggins4779 Our father, a WW2, veteran was surprised when I told him that Greb defeated Tunney who went on to defeat Dempsey. Young people do not realize that Dempsey was the Tyson of his era and that Greb, middleweight champ, looked excellent in sparring with this monster and tried to get a title shot against Dempsey.
Love reading about this era because scientific boxing emerged and removed boxing from its bareknuckle period. Greb was the real deal and it's a shame no fight film exists.
Look up his record and the records of the men he competed against and one should be amazed. I was and still am.
I never saw the man again. Was he telling the truth, who knows.
This was a nasty fighter right here! Fighters back in those days always stayed in fighting shape because they fought so many times in a year: sometimes up to 15-20 times. And what is considered "B" level back in those days would easily be championship A level today. It's mastery of skills through repetition in a high risk environment (a fight) versus simply sparring and using modern training technology (today).
thats what i keep telling mayweather fans
The Arizona Joker
Good luck using objective reasoning with that group...
Harambe Mane Boxing is the exception, it has regressed, the art of in fighting has been lost and fighters today or the last 50 years wouldn't know how to handle the expert inside fighters of the old eras.
Wilt Chamberlain but look at the way they fight... expert inside fighter you say? Roberto Duran was a master of that!
Harambe Mane Correct, I am a huge fan of the hands of stone and he did so well because of his expert inside fighting, no one during his time or today could match it, but fighters from even the 1800s had better inside fighting because of the knowledge and evolution of it from London prize ring rules to Marquess of Queensbury rules because these guys dedicated their lives and trained everyday to perfect their craft. The only fighters who were as dedicated as those from the past eras became all time greats like Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Roberto Duran Marvin Hagler etc
The greatest P4P fighter ever, he ducked no one, many ducked him and only fought him at the end of his career yet he still won, he cut Tunney to bits and apparently won the 2nd as well, Dempsey and Carpentier both avoided him,
Rocky fish I would put him at either 2nd or 3rd with Henry Armstrong. Those two were very hard to tell who was better. Harry Greb is certainly one of the greatest however. Sugar Ray Robinson at 1st however.
Huh? Tunney and he fought 5 times. Tunney beat him 3 times lost once and a draw. How is 5 fights considered ducking someone.
I’d put Greb or Langford at #1. Armstrong or Gans at #3. Robinson fits in somewhere between 5-10. I think SRR is one of the greatest ever but tends to be overrated in the P4P rankings as he’s always voted #1 fashionably.
@@milesmccoy2976
he’s always voted #1 pound for pound because the term “pound for pound” was made for him , he was the first 5x middleweight champion , he was able to do things most fighters can’t do , most of his opponents he lost to he had a rematch with and won and he’s the first to make boxing beautiful but I do agree sometimes people gotta give him another spot but that doesn’t mean he’s not held in a very special place
@@Exploretheearthh it was made for Benny Leonard not Sugar Ray Robinson.
4:28 The sparring here is amazing...you can see how good he was at parrying his opponent's punches with his gloves and how he gained confidence from forcing his opponent to waste energy. Very animalistic style.
Kind of crazy to see an old school fighter have that “drain his energy” style that was something more brought famous by Ali except Ali involved rope a dope
Nothing amazing. That's the level of an amateur boxer, and not even an amateur champion.
Besides, he got 2 punches in the head right after.
@@namethis658
He’s messing around with a 50 year old man, if Greb took it seriously, he would’ve bloodied him.
@@Uuyrijies1123 again, he showed nothing special in terms of technique here. Moreover, his overall technique is outdated by modern boxing standards, it's clear for me that his high number of fights and wins has to do with boxing still being young and developing in 1920s, the overall level of boxers was much lower, even though many were talented.
@@namethis658
Sure, the era that Greb fought in definitely isn’t advanced in terms of technique. But you have to take into account that Greb, for his time and era, defeated great HOFs, such as Gene Tunney, Tommy Loughran, Tommy Gibbons, Jack Dillon, Gunboat Smith, Kid Norfolk, Maxie Rosenbloom, Mickey Walker, Jimmy Slattery etc.
These guys were the best of the best in their era, and Greb beat them all.
You also have to take into account that he gave up more weight to his opponents from 10 to 50 pounds on a regular basis. It isn’t fair to judge a fighters ranking by their technique, because in the future, the guys we used to rate so high like Robinson, Ali, Floyd, (their opinion not mine) and many more are going to be in the top 100s.
Which is why rating a fighter by their accomplishments and resumes seems more fair to me, and certainly makes them be remembered in history.
That face wears the marks of every one of those hundreds of fights but the rest of him is made of iron. The contrast to our contemporary pampered fighters is stark.
Back in the day, when boxers were MEN!
Noticed that too. Dudes nose looks like it's been busted a 1000 times and has scars all over his eyes and eyebrows. One tough sob no doubt.
@@stevev2422
Are you implying boxers today aren't? Have you ever stepped in the ring for a pro fight?
@@sebaba001 Comparing guys now and in the past guys now aren't that tough or as conditioned as guys in the past.
antonio mosley today’s boxers would utterly annihilate Greb. You are delusional if you think otherwise
It's great that we still have a film like this to put some flesh to the images but a tragedy that we don't have any of him fighting.
Film of Greb fighting anybody would be worth a stack but if anybody out there has film of any of the Tunney- Greb fights sat up in their attic or in a dusty box wrapped in old newspaper in their basement (and it''s a strong possibility) they are sitting on the Holy Grail. I believe that some film will surface at some point but as to which fight/s it might be ...who knows?
Greb was a beast - no doubt about it. People may think that training, technique and conditioning are better today than they were back then and they're right. But fighters were tougher back then and there were more of them and you don't survive 300 fights in that era, often fighting one or two divisions above your weight , unless you are something special.
TheSmithDorian The condtioning was better back then because you won't find no one being able to fight 15 rounds except maybe Floyd Mayweather and maybe Pacqiuao and even then I don't think they can do it several times weeks apart.
Fighters back then would RUN 8-15 miles mixing it with sprints and no stopping throughout everyday, chop wood for hours, pound the bag for an hour, shadow box up to 40 rounds, skip for an hour, do all sorts of body weight exercises, spar 10-15 rounds or more, all in one day!
Todays fighters training regime would be something like this:
JOG 4-6 miles
Go to the gym lift some weights
Go to the boxing gym and 6 rounds on the bad, 20 mins skipping, 6-8 rounds of sparring, 5 rounds of the pads and some ground work.
The old school were FAR more well conditioned and fit and much stronger mentally. I'm currently an amateur boxer and I can vouch for this.
MultiGreat1
I should have said that conditioning was more scientific rather than that the boxers today are better conditioned.
You're correct in what you say about the fighters of Greb's era. Also they fought almost constantly throughout their careers. They didn't have a big fight and then wait 9 - 12 months before their next one.
Interesting statistic;Number of rounds fought per year averaged out over their pro careers;
Mayweather 20 Rounds / Year
Pac Man 21 Rounds / Year
Greb 77 Rounds / Year
I also boxed for 3 years as an amateur myself many moons ago. Getting hit hurts a lot more when your on the end of it than it does on the TV doesn't it - especially body shots. :)
TheSmithDorian Definitely lol.
+rick rich there were actually 8 weight classes at this particular moment in time (heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight, bantamweight, and flyweight)
Actually, from 1922-1924 there were technically 11 weight classes. Junior welterweight, junior lightweight, and junior featherweight were in existence, but they weren't as popular and widely accepted as the original eight. Jf disappeared from 1924-1976, JL disappeared from 1934-1949, and JW disappeared from 1935-1946.
There are 17 weight classes today. Back then you could be 165 lbs. and fighting as a light-heavyweight or 150 lbs. and fighting as a middleweight, without the help of divisions such as super middleweight (168 lbs.) or junior middleweight (154 lbs.)
He did all that and retired at 29
.....WTF
That is some wild chaotic fighting!
Wow amazing.. Just read a great article in this week’s Boxing News (Feb 9 2023) about Harry.. Truly remarkable Boxer by all accounts.. Shame there’s not any footage of his bouts..
If he had never fought Tunney he would NEVER have gotten any recognition. I read about him and I know it's true that many belted champions and rising fighters didn't want a fight with him. Seeing him in this video I know he loves to f'n fight.
Maybe not by modern fans but there is a legitimate argument that can be made that Tunney's fights with Greb are what laid the foundation for his legacy. By the time that they fought, Greb was a long well established name in the sport, especially after his wins over Tommy Gibbons. One of which was supposed to be for a shot at Dempsey's title. That's why they filmed the first Greb/Tunney fight because it was a huge deal. So when Tunney was able to grow and overcome Greb in their fight series that meant something, because no one had really had that level of success against Greb. Even though Greb had been declining and Tunney used a lot of political pressure to force Greb to fight conservative, after their last fight Tunney had established himself as the best fighter in the sport.
Awesome video. Love the old school training. So much of it is considered archaic now, but all the guys of that era did it and had great results.
And never seem to have stamina issues!
When you start talking of the greatest of All-time,..this guy has got to definitely enter the conversation....tremendous fighter
What fight have you ever seen him in?
@@jeffason69 his resume is the greatest ever.
@@cheetoyeeto1232 Answer the question.....
@@nordicwarriorgaming4953 nobody alive has every seen harry greb fight but his record speaks for itself.
@@jeffason69 You don't need to see someone fight to know how great he was. His legacy is set. We talk about the greatness of figures much older than him, solely based on legacy and history. We talk about the greatness of the Roman Empire, not because we witnessed it, but because history has so much to say about it.
The clarity of this footage is amazing.
Even more welcome considering we have no fight film of Mr. Greb.
The middleweight equivalent of Jack Dempsey, Harry Greb was an all time top 5 pound for pound best. He once fought 45 fights in 1919 alone! And won them all! If a prime Mike Tyson was transported back in time Greb would have probably fought him (granted Tyson's power & ferocity would have flattened him in less than 3 rounds). Greb was as courageous as he was formidable, skilled & prolific. One of the Greatest! Only Hagler, Monzon & Sugar Ray Robinson were at his level of sheer stupendous ability as middleweight champions. Greb's raw toughness was of another era, another time, another world. The guy probably ate nails for breakfast!
Legend deep respect sir.
It's so insane to me to watch how the sport has progressed through the years
this footage needs to be taken with heaps of salt in terms of what boxers of the times training regimen looked like. for one, the film was taken on a bulky ass tripod with limited capture window, filming training sessions for marketing purposes wasnt really a thing, and the “sparring” was literally greb dicking around with his 50 year old trainer on top of a roof, sparring back then was just like today, in ring, round by round with headgear, and boxers and trainers had sophisticated systems even back then, they were concious of nutrition, they did a plethora of aerobic and anaerobic workouts and a plethora of boxing drills, on top of sparring and running, working the heavybag, speed bag, reflex bag etc. really pure boxing training hasnt changed much at all in the past 100 years
@edernomelenko oh stop. Greb was great but his shadow boxing is rudimentary and spastic. Techniques and abilities have multiplied so much
It is like a totally different sport
Just shows you don't even know what you're watching😂
@@thegadflygang5381 Thanks for imparting some of your vast boxing knowledge, "Sugar Ray Robinson."
@@thegadflygang5381glad I wasn’t the only one to see an issue with the shadow boxing. The sport has changed. Maybe there is something we are missing. An ability to regain your balance? He threw we very lunch like he’d missed.
Fantastic footage, thanks for posting.
You gotta love the Handball playing at the end!
I love to see these great legends on the treasured few films of them! They used a ping pong to train hand/eye coordination and speed just like Rocky with them chickens, a clever low cost idea. The “Pittsburgh Windmill” must have been very gifted to beat the great Gene Tunney and with only one good eye too!
It's crazy that he had more fights in a year than most fighters today have in their whole career
in the year 1919 he went 45-0. this boxer is really mythical and legendary, sad there is no footage of his fights
Because his opponents were way less qualified. Look at his sparring, that's the level of an amateur boxer, he'd get his ass handled to him on an average European boxing championship today.
@@namethis658 I'm sure he'd have a harder time in today's division but he had to have had something about him to beat Gene Tunney
@@namethis658 now watch this “sparring” footage and imagine if Manny Pacquiao had a “sparring” session with Freddie Roach lol his coach was 50 years old and they were on a rooftop with no headgear, sparring back then was just like today, in fact we have footage of Mickey Walker in a real sparring session and it looks like a sparring session youd see today. and even dicking around you see Greb parrying, rolling, pivoting, setting up clean shots from weird angles while pulling all his punches.
@@namethis658 this guy fought countless greats idk wtf u on
Everybody talking about harry greb but no one about Philadelphia jack o brian looking like 35 or 40 y/o and being so fast and brutal af
his punches were crisp. His form may look weird to today's, but back then. These were top class.
Its about the function you look at the light sparring some would say it looks goofy cause he's got 1920s swag but he's constantly pivoting, feinting, parrying and looking for counters all in balance on the balls of his feet head never in the same spot. And this is him playing around he had those skills just burned into him
It's called evolution. Mordern days high jumper, long jumper, track runners etc records are better for a reason. Because mordern day athletes learned it from the old era athletes. It's how sports evolves.
@@JeffPenaify Yup
@@pongnakalohan887 things can also devolve. Plus, you're talking about sports that take one skill set. Boxing is many and not only just physical skills.
@@pongnakalohan887 except boxing didnt evolve like other sports, because boxers fight substantially less, competition has become so convoluted its hardly a sport, very spotty film records of the greatest eras, and the greatest trainers of these eras mostly died with their knowledge. it cant be compared to sports that are more active than ever, have a deeper participation than ever and maintained a true competitive landscape consistently. professional boxing peaked in the early-middle 20th century and has seriously declined in the 21st century
He beat Tunney.....with one eye!
Thank you so much. That's some great stuff, priceless
Freeze the image at 37 seconds in, where you can barely see Greb, and you have what his opponents saw when they were fighting him.
Just did….he was gone quicker then a shadow.
His shadow boxing looks so unusual (almost wierd). I would have love to see how exactly he pull of so many boxing wins. Especially the one against gene tunney with his unusual style.
First person player apparently he moved constantly throwing punches from every angle imaginable, probably was great in the clinch being blind in one eye and just smashed away
Yeah but it was his weirdness that confused everybody.
To me his punches looked bent to deflect incoming punches but his would come throw. Like taking a saber to a straight edge sword.
If you watch closely he has a hard chopping right hand for a start and throws quick punches from all angles dangerous uppercut in tight too
Pure SAVAGE!!!! All Time Great...RIP Harry Greb
Had never heard of Greb until today. You can tell this guy was a bruiser.
Loving the cross-training with the modified raquetball (using pads on each hand vs using a raquet), probably works well on your reflexes, hip rotation and being ambidextrous.
You mean handball, it’s a sport in its own right. One of Irelands national sports.
Love seeing the history of my sport
Thanks for the footage I used a bit of it in my recent edit. Cheers
Not quite sure, but I believe that the guy training & sparring with him is "Philadelphia" Jack O'Brien, ex Light-Heavyweight champion and himself a Hall of Famer.....
One of the best to do it
One of my favorite boxers ever
almost 100 years ago that’s fucking crazy
Gran vídeo.Gracias.
Thanks for the video, RINGWISE M.
True legend who earned his name in history
The Greatest to have ever lived. PERIOD.
This guy is terrifying. There's not one square centimeter on his body that isn't pure fighter.
The greatest fighter of all time, in my opinion. Resumé is the best ever.
This is amazing. I had read years ago that no tape of Greb existed, even training. This was one rough dude who would
clean up today on guys anywhere from 160-200. Thanks for the upload.
"who would
clean up today on guys anywhere from 160-200" Bullshit mate, these skinny white boys were only good against skinny white boys.
+Sujit Sharma skinny? harry greb was skinny? lol what? stfu you scrawny kid, greb destroyed ton of heavyweights. Greb has beaten more hall of famers than any other boxer. Tell me, how many hof boxers have you beat?
@@sujitsharma4346 And there's always one moron who has to bring race into everything.
Get a life!
Man, there's some stories in that face.
Boy have things changed!
Fascinating
The way they describe Harry Greb's fighting style I imagine a fighting style similar to Pacquiao but with better fundamentals and even great in-fighting skills.
According to the 2 biographies of him I've read (and the accounts therein of fighters who fought him), I think Greb was like a mixture of Joe Calzaghe (hundreds of punches) + Aaron Pryor (crazy footwork to close in) + Henry Armstrong (stamina that got better as rounds went on) + he had a ton of weird flexibility in his waist (I'm thinking he had a bobbing style reminiscent of Joe Frazier/Jack Dempsey/Henry Hank) + he had VERY fast feet and fast hands, and the obvious in-fighting grappling that many old fighters knew back then.
From what I read, many old timers back then used to call his footwork Kangaroo-like / Jack-in-the-box which (picturing it and seeing him move around in this video) meant that he was likely a fighter always down in some type of fast moving crouch and leapt from strange angles at his opponents. Jack Dempsey called him a very strange fighter when he sparred him (saying that it felt like walking into a boxing glove factory and having rolls of gloves fall on you from all over...but none of the punches hurt). And Jack Johnson said that he was one of the quickest boys he's ever sparred against when Greb was a teenager.
@@TainoMantis wow. You have a copy of those books. I really love to have one but it's really hard to find one here in the Philippines.
@@TainoMantis thanks for the information. I really appreciate that.
@@TainoMantis I appreciate this
Pacquiao would have ko'ed him in the first round
Best ever in history
Legendary fighter
This was one of the hardest films to get for Jim Jacobs collection .
Best Ever!
Wow how has boxing changed so much
This is about as close as it gets to seeing Harry fight
This guy was s monster...
There’s got to be footage of his fights somewhere!
From what I'm seeing toward the end,
Harry blocked with his hands in a high guard,
and ducked to his right while delivering body shots.
this is honestly some of the funniest training footage ever, great fighter though.
Looks funny but wont be funny when he does that stuff to people in the ring. People used to walk out of the fight with cuts and bruises all over their face.
@@NukeTenthTheGrand u dont say
@@NukeTenthTheGrand How do you know that? Show me a single piece of footage of a single one of his fights.
@@nordicwarriorgaming4953 All of his fight films were either lost or damaged beyond repair. The only information on him are from previous accounts, records, and quotes from other fighters and historians. Though what I stated was a fact, he wasn't named the Human Windmill for no reason, his aggressive swarming style has a pace and punch volume on the same level of Henry Armstrong, though he possessed far greater speed and could punch from various unorthodox angles.
Harry Greb is responsible for the only loss on Gene Tunney's record of 65-1 and gave him one of the worst beatings of his entire career. A broken nose, cuts on both sides of his eyes, a face covered with blood by the end of the fight, Tunney was hospitalized despite the taller and bigger fighter.
Aside from that, on his documented boxing record, he fought light-heavyweights, heavyweights, and cruiserweights despite being naturally being middleweight, although the heaviest he ever weigh for a fight was around 170, he often did fight against larger and heavier opponents. He won against 15 Hall of Fame inducted Boxers and retired with 261-17-19
@@NukeTenthTheGrand How do you know any of this? Prove it.
That handshake 🙂
Boxing developed a lot
thanks for the vidio of my grandpaw
Wish someone would ai upscale this. Id love to see how Greb moves
THE GOAT!!!!!!!
he certainly was a buzz-saw........... the great Harry Greb,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Apparently he gave tunney agood beating , back in the day when l80 lb heavy weights would fight middle weights.
Would love to see how Greb vs Hopkins would've gone down.
Greb just looked like a fighter
Rummy‘s Corner brought me here.
He's hitting that speed bag hard.
Like it insulted is Mom or something.
bring back old school boxing lol. He was holding those gloves, catching backhands, headbutts, all kinds of shit that isn't allowed now lmao.
How would Greb manage Les Darcy? There was an opportunity for both men to fight each when Darcy arrived in America during 1917. Darcy's premature death and the politics of war stopped that from happening.
His shadow boxing tells why he was called "The Pittsburgh Windmill".
back in those days i no him and all the other boxers could take a punch those gloves look as if they have no padding
My top 3 Middleweights of all time are between Harry Greb, Sugar Ray Robinson and Tiger Flowers
Him and SRR greatest p4p fighters of all time
don't forget Henry Armstrong, Sam Langford, Ezzard Charles and Archie Moore.
@@chrisrembert6928 ..or Willie Pep
@@romanlegion2621 Greb, Robinson, Armstrong, Langford and Willie Pep are no doubt the top 5 greatest boxers ever
Tgis man was legally blind in one eye by this time
he sure had power accucy and speed kind like ali his flaw i saw was he can t take a person with fast hands like he has
If this dude trained with today's advancements he's a beast
"Todays advancements" aren't superior to an environment where you can get 20 fights a year and plenty of talent to make a name off of, all of the weight lifting, s and c , nutrition programs is only tertiary compared to actual experience in boxing and traditional boxing training like how a pitcher and batter dont get great by their other workouts and supplements but by competing against other great pitchers and batters and developing and honing those skills
Boxers in those days wanted a K.O. 🥊
nice upload,he died a year later aged 32 while having an operation on his nose in order for him to breath better,after complications he never awoke from the anesthetic
La operacion fue en la vista. Peleó ciego de un ojo mucho tiempo. La intervención fue para tratar de corregir eso.
Un año mas tarde, su viejo rival Tiger Flowers fallecio de las mismas causas. Nunca despertó de la anestesia luego de operarse de la vista...
The operation was in sight. He fought blind in one eye long. The intervention was to try to correct that.
A year later, his old rival Tiger Flowers died of the same causes. He never woke up from anesthesia after eye surgery ...
EnriqueBoxeo the operation was on his nose not hes eye
He was also losing vision in his left eye at this time.
Look at the gloves
@5:05 How does a guy play this game with just one eye?
He said after a while his vision widen in his 1 eye.
2:45 Max Baer?
Probably
@@jkai7466 Fascinating
Nah it ain't him...kinda looks like him though haha.
Looks like he curb and curved his arms to block while he punched and each was designed to hit a fighters weakpoints of the Orthodox fighter defence
Burt Sugar rated Greb #1 middle weight. i dont recall if he was ever knocked out.