Quote Originally Posted by Cressa121 View Post
Thanks for that. Looking at his accomplishments, hearing how highly other fighters thought of him at that time and seeing footage of some of the fighters he beat certainly indicates he was something special.

That website link you posted in the other thread has a few newspaper articles about the possibility of Greb fighting Dempsey. It mentions the sparring sessions and of a deal being close at one point around 1922, but doesn't say why they never fought. Why was that? Did Dempsey just decide against it and to continue touring the country? The articles date to about 1920 when it talks of a possible Greb-Dempsey match, and Dempsey only fought 6 times between 1920 and 1926 against Miske (for whom he sparred with Greb), Brennan, Carpentier, Darcy, Gibbons and Firpo.

Or was it because Greb lost twice to Tunney and once to Loughran in 1923, killing the possibility of a Dempsey fight? Just curious as to why it never happened when the articles indicated it was almost a done deal
There are conflicting reports on why that fight didn't happen. One of course is Greb scared the crap out of Jack Kearns, Dempsey's manager. A second is Greb at 165 or so just wouldn't be sellable as heavyweight material for an "event fight." The second is a little tougher to swallow given he had beaten several men Dempsey later fought for the crown. I think you're right on Tunney. Greb lost that spot when he lost to Tunney a couple of times.

There is one other thing to remember. Back then the heavyweight crown was so important and so visible the champion made as much or more money doing ancillary things, movies, vaudeville, exhibitions without risk that only event fights really made financial sense.