Professional record: 261-17-19 (including newspaper decisions)
Lineal Middleweight Champion
World Middleweight Title
6 Middleweight Title Defenses
10 World Title Fights won 8
44 Fights against World Champions won 32
Fought 15 World Champions beat 13 of them
48 Fights against Hall of Famers
Fought 16 Hall of Famers beat 15
Beat 9 of the 13 fighters that beat him
He is ranked as the number 1 Middleweight and number 2 pound-4-pound fighter by the Boxing Research Organization.
It's also worth to mention that he was fighter of the year in 1922, 1924, and was rated as the best Middleweight of the year in 1923, 1924, and 1925. Fight of the year in 1922 against Gene Tunney (first one), fight of the year in 1925 against Mickey Walker. Was also upset of the upset of the year in 1923 against Gene Tunney (rematch).
Having nearly 300 fights with over 260 wins and only 17 losses is simply amazing. In one 6 year period, he went 152-3-7. Now imagine that in today's standards. For example, the man we call today the greatest of our era Floyd Mayweather Jr had 49 fights in 21 years. A lot of fighters were like that back then in Greb's era fighting multiple times per month. (Langford, Jeannette, Mcvea and much more). In 1919 he went 45-0 which is also worth to note.
That also brings me to say that he is the only man to beat the legendary Heavyweight Gene Tunney. Tunney received a brutal 15 round beating in the first fight, his nose was broken and was badly cut above both eyes. Gene Tunney said he never learned so much from a single fight. The only reason he did not beat all the Champions and Hall of Famers he fought is that he only fought the ones he lost to once, other wise the result would have been different since he avenged 13 of his 17 losses. Also unlike many other white fighters of his time, he was more than happy to fight black fighters and never drew the color line.
Greb sparred with Jack Dempsey often dominating him. In one spar Greb headbutted Dempsey splitting his tongue. Often he would throw more punches than Dempsey could handle and then get out of his range. And let me reminds you that Greb was a middleweight while Dempsey was a Heavyweight. In his career, he often fought men much heavier and taller than him.
He could throw a punch from pretty much impossible angles. One of the greatest Welterweights Mickey Walker once said: "He hit from impossible angles, once after Harry missed a right to my face he spun all the way around so his back was facing me. I relaxed my guard and waited for him to turn around. But before I knew what was happening his left hand was stuck in my mouth. I still don't know how he did it but he hit me when his hands were facing the opposite direction". You can imagine what kind of unorthodox fighter he was. Also, he was extremely fast the great Heavyweight Jack Johnson once said: "You are the fastest man I've ever worked with, you are almost impossible to tag with a clean punch.
Greb was also very durable only suffering 2 TKO losses in his 17 losses. He was like a middleweight with the hand speed of Sugar Ray Robinson and the durability of Jim Jeffries.
Sadly there is no actual footage of Greb fighting. But ten of thousands watched him fight and they wrote articles and papers. Because we did not watch him does not mean that no one recognized his amazing skill and talent. Sadly Greb died in 1926 at the young age of 32 years old. He achieved so many great things while fighting blind in one eye for most of his career.
Final thoughts: Regarding where I put him in a pound-4-pound list I will just say easily in the top 3. I don't know if I could rate him as the greatest ever since I always switch between Greb, Langford, and Robinson for that spot at this point it's too close and hard to decide who is the greatest. But to me as long as it's these 3 I can see why any of them could be the number 1 fighter of all time.
1894-1926
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