Pittsburgh Windmill, Harry Greb Went 45-0 in 1919, His Greatest Year in Boxing History
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
In 1919, Hall of Fame boxer Harry Greb went 45-0 and traveled across 426 rounds in top condition! No fighter has accomplished this unblemished record since, and in all statistical probability, never will.
During his best fighting year ever, Greb incurred two broken hands, a broken nose, cracked ribs, torn ankle ligaments, infected cuts, and, outside of the ring, even got hit by a car. Each fight was a legitimate war against top-flight Hall of Fame-level competition.
After finally losing to Mike Gibbons, Greb went on another run, this time 56-0. Greb never lost more than one bout over a stretch of 100 bouts. He did not hold a world title during these stretches, in an era where there was only one champion in each of the established eight professional boxing weight classes.
The Pittsburgh Windmill, Harry Greb, final record 109-9-3 with 50 knockouts. Greb was the World Middleweight champion from 1923 to 1926, and died in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on October 22, 1926, following eye surgery. Harry Greb, ‘The Pittsburgh Windmill’, was Pittsburgh’s first sports superstar, a 12-dollar-a-week tin roofer.
Greb was enshrined in the Ring Magazine Hall of Fame in 1955, the Pennsylvania Boxing Hall of Fame in 1958, the Western 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. The Sporting News recognized Greb as ‘Fighter of the Decade’ for the 1920s.
A dangerous fighter in any era, Greb is ranked by BoxRec as the fourth greatest fighter of all time, pound for pound. Greb was also named the second greatest fighter of the past 80 years by Ring Magazine, the third greatest fighter of all time by historian Bert Sugar, the fourth 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 all-time.
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Robert Brizel – Head Boxing Correspondent