Evening star., 1926-10-01

OF the heavies and light heavyweight
And this was the man against whom
Gene Tunney, with only about three
years of professional fighting under
his belt was called on to defend the
l75-pound championship. which he had
won only a few months previously
from Battling Levinsky. What Greb
did To Tunney in their first meeting
would have been enough 10 kill the
spirit of most any boxer and conf1ne
him to the pubiliStic scrapheap for
the rest of his days.
In the very first round TunneN was
butted and had his nose broken.
round or SO later another butt Of the
head severed an artery over Gene 5
left eye. Both of these wounds bied
continuously all through the contest;
every desperate effcrt failed to stop
the flow. Practically blinded and
weak from the loss of blood. he was
al the mercy Of the rough and busy
Greb.
Managed to Weather Storm.
How Gene managed to live through
THOSE awful 10 rounds is beyond be-
lief. But he not only stayed in there
and fought back to the best of his
ability right to the end. but was nev-
er even knocked off his feet. Some
how he managed to weather those ter
rble minutes, to cross the ring at the
finish and congratulate his victorious
foe, to climb bravely through the
ropes. But once he had passed the
door of his dressing room he fell over
in "A faint.
There have been few boxers worse
beaten than was Tunney on that
night. He had lost a great quantity of
blood and his body was SO swollen
from the relentless pounding that had
been inflicted that il was even neceS-
sary to cut the tights from his body
And one of the first things Gene muir
INJURED when he came to was:
"Cireb couldn't knock me out. though
ne had me helpless.> The next time
we meet Iii beat him.
And some months later. undismayed
by his fearful experience, Gene diG
come back and beat Greb and regained
the American light heavyweight title
Not only that, when there was some
argument as to Genes right To the
decision in that second meeting with
Greb, he came back that same year
and defeated the Pittsburgh contender
so decisively that Tunney's superiority
was settled beyond question.
Showed Heart of Champion.
Right here Gene Tunney displayed
qualities that should have convinced
the skeptical as to the former Marines
pugiliStic worth. He had beaten a
great fighter when he was great and
in the doing had shown the heart of
a champion.
Twice more Gene fought Greb in
decisionlesS 10-round contests and it
was Harry himself. shortly after their
final Weeting, which was at st. Paul
on March %, 1925. that Greb himself
put me wise to the fact that the next
heavyweight champion of the world
would be Gene Tunney.
III never fight Tunney again"
Greb told me. THAT guy has gotten
to be much better than most of you
fellows realize. He does things to
his that may not look SO much from
the outside of the ropes-but. boy,
They take plenty out of YOU. He
has gotten to be too strong and too
smart for me- and in another year or
two he is going to be in there against
Jack Dempsey, and when he does
Harry Greb is going To have bet on
Gene"
And Harry did. and il was a pretty
SiZable bet that he collected after the
contest at Philadelphia one week ago
asst night.
Up until then must admit that
had not given Tunney very serious
consideration as Dempsey con
queror but with Il match between
Tunney and Tom Gibbons in the air
started to dope the thing out. and ]
was impressed with the fact that
Greb seemed to have the right idea.