Harry Greb (June 6, 1894 – October 22, 1926) was a professional boxer. Nicknamed "The Pittsburgh Windmill", "The Smoke City Wildcat", and "The Pittsburgh Bearcat", Greb ranked the fifth best pound-for-pound boxers of all time by Sports Illustrated. He was the American light heavyweight champion from 1922 to 1923 and the world middleweight champion from 1923 to 1926. He fought 298 times in his 13-year career, which began at around 140 pounds. Despite starting as a welterweight, he was frequently squaring off against and beating light heavyweights and even heavyweights.

Fighting Style

Greb had a highly aggressive, fast and swarming style of fighting. He also used dirty fighting tactics, including spinning his opponent and using the heel and laces of his gloves. Greb suffered several injuries in his career, including blindness in one eye. Greb suffered only 2 TKO losses in his career. The first was in his seventh year when he was knocked out by an opponent who heavily outweighed him; the second happened three years later when Greb broke the radius of his left arm. Greb finished the round but was unable to continue the fight.

Professional career

Harry Greb was born as Edward Henry Greb to a German immigrant father and mother of German descent, Pius and Annie Greb, who raised him in a working-class household. Greb began his professional boxing career in 1913, fighting mostly around his hometown of Pittsburgh. By 1915, he was fighting world-class opposition, notably Hall of Famer Tommy Gibbons and reigning middleweight champion George Chip, whom he faced twice during 1915–1916 in non-title fights. Greb would lose both fights by "newspaper" decision, which he would later avenge. Greb would fight 37 times in 1917 (a record), winning 34 of those fights either officially or unofficially. Among his defeated opponents that year were the reigning light heavyweight champion Battling Levinsky (in a non-title fight), former light heavyweight champion Jack Dillon, middleweight George Chip and heavyweight Willie Meehan, who had beaten future heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey earlier in the year. Despite all these results, Greb was still denied a chance to fight for a title. A February 1918 newspaper draw against Mike O'Dowd, who would go on to win the middleweight title during the year, and a newspaper loss to Billy Miske did not help in his effort. Greb would win his next 52 fights in a row. During that stretch, he beat future light heavyweight champion Mike McTigue, heavyweight contenders Billy Miske, Mike Gibbons, Bill Brennan, Jeff Smith, and Leo Houck 3 times each, and Battling Levinsky no less than four times during that stretch (6 times altogether) in newspaper decisions. Levinsky was the reigning light heavyweight champion at the time.

Vision problems

In 1921, during a fight with light heavyweight Kid Norfolk, he was thumbed in the right eye, which is believed to have resulted in a retinal tear. The injury would eventually lead to permanent blindness. Greb won via a ten-round newspaper decision and was eligible to fight for the middleweight title. It is commonly believed that Greb completely lost sight in the eye after his fifth bout with Bob Roper, after which it took almost two months to recover. He was seen in a hospital with patches over both eyes. He kept the injury a secret from all but his wife and closest friends, fooling physicians during pre-fight physicals by memorizing the order of the letters on the eye chart (Greb would later lose some vision in his left eye and his gradual loss of sight led him to always go to bed with the light on).

Greb vs. Tunney

On May 23, 1922, Harry Greb was matched with Gene Tunney, the undefeated American light heavyweight champion. In the first round, Greb immediately fractured Tunney's nose in two places and then proceeded to open a deep gash over his left eye. According to eye-witness reports, Greb was subsequently forced to intermittently commission the referee to wipe off his bloodstained gloves with a towel. Throughout the bout, Greb would repeatedly petition the referee to stop the fight while a determined Tunney concurrently implored him to allow the contest to continue. Round after round, the beating continued, with Tunney refusing to submit and smiling during the bloodshed to keep the referee from halting the match. At the end of fifteen rounds Greb was crowned champion unanimously. This was the first and only professional loss in Tunney's career, with the bout being hailed as the Fight of the Year for 1922 by the Ring Magazine. After defending his title against Tommy Loughran, Greb granted Tunney a rematch. In a hotly disputed battle at Madison Square Garden in February 1923, Tunney regained his title by a highly controversial split decision. Multiple eyewitness reports state that Greb controlled the fight and battered Tunney, cutting and rocking him from punches on more than one occasion. But Tunney could fight back, unlike in the first encounter, and at some points, was competitive with Greb. The crowd booed heavily when Tunney was announced as the winner. Greb and Tunney would meet three more times, with Tunney successfully defending his regained title in another fifteen-round about and then fighting to a no-decision newspaper draw, wherein most newspapers reported Greb the winner. Referee Matt Hinkel stated he would have ruled a draw, so the record books have it that way. The fifth battle was reminiscent of the first fight in their series, except this time, it was Tunney bludgeoning Greb for the duration of the bout. According to Tunney, near the end of the match, while the two fighters were locked in a clinch, Greb straightforwardly asked Tunney not to knock him out. Tunney reputedly consented to this request and later acknowledged the incident as the highest tribute he received in his career, stating, "Here was one of the greatest fighters of all time laying down his shield, admitting defeat and knowing I would not expose him." Tunney would go on to beat Jack Dempsey for the heavyweight title. Greb remained the only man ever to have beaten Tunney, and Tunney would be among the pall-bearers at Greb's funeral.

Middleweight champion

One month after losing his light heavyweight title to Tunney, Greb set his sights on middleweight champion Johnny Wilson; however, when Wilson's manager Marty Killelea refused to offer him the bout, Greb paid a few speakeasy servers in Pittsburgh and New York to serve him water in coloured tumblers and then feigned intoxication in a highly theatrical spectacle. When Killelea witnessed one of these performances, he assumed Greb was ripe for the taking and arranged for the about to take place. On August 31, 1923, Greb faced Wilson for the world middleweight title, winning a 15-round decision. When referee Jack O'Sullivan stepped in to separate the fighters during a rough clinch, he asked Greb what he thought he was doing. Greb responded, "Gouging Johnny in the eye, can't you see?" Greb would grant Wilson a rematch on January 18, 1924, in Madison Square Garden, winning another 15-round decision.

Greb vs. Walker

Greb's most notable defense of the title was against the reigning world welterweight champion, Mickey Walker, in July 1925 at the Polo Grounds in New York. Most pundits and even Walker believed Greb would have trouble making the 160lb weight limit. Still, when it was reported that Greb weighed in at 157 1/2 lbs, he was inserted as the 9–5 odds favorite. During the first few rounds of the battle, Walker came out attacking Greb to the body as the defending champion tried to stave off cramps in both his legs. The middle rounds saw Greb starting to relax and control the pace of the about while Walker could still land some eye-catching combinations. Greb took control during the championship round, and Greb was awarded a unanimous decision by the judges and retained the championship. Walker, who would win the middleweight title the following year, relayed years later a tale that he stumbled upon Greb at a nightclub after their fight, and, according to the legend, the two fought an impromptu rematch there. According to some reports, Greb easily won the spontaneous rematch, while the general consensus is that Walker landed a sucker punch on Greb that knocked him out cold. According to Walker himself, the two were sitting down discussing their fight over a drink when Walker commented that he felt that had it not been for Greb thumbing him in the eye, he would have won the fight. The heavily intoxicated Greb took great offense to this and jumped to his feet to fight. The two fought and ended up outside where several friends of each separated the men.

Later career

At 32, a waning Greb was years past his best when he was matched with tricky southpaw Tiger Flowers (who was 31 at the time) in Madison Square Garden in February 1926. Flowers, a defensive specialist, countered Greb's attacks well and won a disputed decision after fifteen rounds to annex Greb's middleweight title. Flowers beat Greb again in their rematch six months later, on an even more controversial decision, the fans storming the ring to protest the outcome. Greb later stated, "Well, that was one fight I won if I ever won any," the fight would be the last of his career.

Personal life

Harry Greb married Mildred Catherine Reilly on January 19, 1919, in Epiphany Church. They had one child.

Retirement and death

Greb retired following the second Flowers loss and relayed to a friend that he planned on opening a gym in downtown Pittsburgh. In September 1926, his right eye was removed and replaced with a glass prosthesis. Having declined a job as Jack Dempsey's sparring partner in preparation for Dempsey-Tunney I (Greb declaring: "I'd feel like a burglar taking Jack's money. Nobody can get him in good enough condition to whip Gene"), Greb checked into an Atlantic City clinic for surgery to repair damage to his nose and respiratory tract caused by his ring career and several car crashes. However, complications occurred, and he died of heart failure on October 22, 1926, at 2:30 pm. Greb was buried at Calvary Cemetery in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Legacy

Greb was willing to box African-American fighters, including Jack Blackburn, Kid Norfolk and Tiger Flowers, in an era when many white boxers refused to do so. Greb faced 16 Hall of Famers, more than any other boxer. Greb fought them 48 times during his career, going 32–11–5 against men who would later be inducted into the Hall of Fame. These Hall of Famers include Jack Blackburn, who was admitted as a trainer, not a fighter. In 1919 alone, he fought 45 fights and went 45–0, a rare achievement that is unlikely to be recreated by contemporary boxers due to changes in the sport.

Accolades

Greb was enshrined in the Ring Magazine Hall of Fame in 1955, the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1970, the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1980, and the International Boxing Hall of Fame as a first-class inductee in 1990. Greb is ranked by BoxRec as the 5th greatest fighter. Greb was also named the 2nd greatest fighter of the past 80 years by the Ring Magazine, the 5th greatest fighter of all time by historian Bert Sugar, the 4th greatest fighter of all time by historian and boxing commentator Max Kellerman and ranked as the #1 middleweight, the #13 light heavyweight, and the #2 pound-for-pound fighter of all time by the International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) in 2006. In another poll by IBRO in 2019, Greb was ranked once again as the #1 middleweight, the #9 light heavyweight, and the #3 pound-for-pound fighter of all tim.

Professional boxing record

All information in this section is derived from BoxRec, unless otherwise stated.

Official record

All newspaper decisions are officially regarded as "no decision" bouts and are not counted in the win/loss/draw column.

Unofficial record

Record with the inclusion of newspaper decisions in the win/loss/draw column.