Edward Henry Greb (June 6, 1894 – October 22, 1926) was an American professional boxer. Nicknamed “The Pittsburgh Windmill”, he is widely regarded by many boxing historians as one of the best pound for pound boxers of all time.
Greb retired with a career record of 108 wins 8 losses 3 draws 1 no contest and 49 wins coming by way of KO. His total number of fights was actually much higher than his record shows due to countless “newspaper decisions/draws” a common stat of the time.
He was the American light heavyweight champion from 1922 to 1923 and world middleweight champion from 1923 to 1926. He fought a recorded 298 times in his 13 year-career, which began at around 140 pounds. He fought against the best opposition the talent-rich 1910s and 20s could provide him and despite starting as a welterweight, he was frequently squaring off against and beating light heavyweights and even heavyweights.
Greb had a highly aggressive, very fast, swarming style of fighting and buried his opponents under a blizzard of punches. He was elusive with very good footwork to jump in and out on opponents. He was also a master at dirty fighting and had no qualms about employing all manner of dubious tactics, such as spinning his opponent and using the heel and laces of his gloves. Greb often got as much as he gave and unbeknownst to the press continued to fight a number of matches even as he became blind in one eye, due to an injury suffered in an earlier match. The ‘Pittsburgh Windmill’ was also very durable, suffering only 2 TKO losses in his whole career. The first was in his seventh bout when he was knocked out by an opponent who heavily outweighed him, the second happened 3 years later when Greb broke the radius of his left arm. Greb finished the round but was unable to continue the fight. Greb’s ultimate weakness may have been his lack of knockout power; although he was able to hurt and bust up many opponents due to the constant onslaught of clean punches he landed on them, he struggled to stop them but this was mostly due to the fact that his opponents were much larger than him. He launched a vicious beating on the much larger Tunney on two occasions, cutting him and hurting him badly, but was unable to knock him out both times. It was the same process with many opponents.
Widely considered one of the best fighters of all time, Greb is currently ranked by BoxRec as the 5th greatest fighter of all time. 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 #3 light heavyweight, and the #2 pound-for-pound fighter of all-time by the International Boxing Research Organization.
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, he had his right eye 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.
Greb is remembered for his indomitable fighting spirit and the will to face all viable opposition despite assumed disadvantages. Especially laudable was his willingness to box highly skilled African-American fighters that included Jack Blackburn, Kid Norfolk and Tiger Flowers in an era when many white boxers refused to do so. In total, Greb faced 16 Hall of Famers, including Jack Blackburn, who got in as a trainer, not a fighter, a combined total of 48 times during his career, going 32–11–5 against men who would later be defined as all-time greats. In 1919 alone, he fought 45 fights and went 45–0, a feat that is extremely unlikely to be repeated given the current trajectory taken by modern boxers. 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. #fight #boxing #fighting
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There were 5 fights with Tunney. 2 wins for Tunney (a robbery in fight 2) a win for Greb and 2 draws. The Walker streetfight never happened and Greb didn't drink.