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Show ipip A A HO was the toughest piece ot ' rawhide that ever came to the ring? The recent death of Chuck Wig-gins Wig-gins brings this ar-frj ar-frj gument into the 'f N 3 spotlight For Com- mander Gene Tun- ; : ney says Chuck ft . J Wiggins was the iv ' tjj roughest piece of hu-1 hu-1 V:-m man rawhide he ' -(t- J&s i !ver snet m a ring and Chuck picked tw w Harry Greb- I- V It might be men-Z0M men-Z0M tioned that TLinney Grantland Rice Places Greb a close second to the unbreakable un-breakable Chuck in the way of toughness not as a fighter. Greb was the fellow Tunney always placed on top as the best man, pound for pound, he ever met. Commander Tunney is -now helping help-ing dynamic Stan Griffis in the Navy Relief drive. We were talking talk-ing about Wiggins (almost nationally national-ly ), and about Harry Greb. "I'll give you two examples," Gene said, "which bring in both men. On my way to my first Dempsey fight I met Chuck Wiggins. Wig-gins. At the time I was working on a right uppercut to the body. I was still raw with this punch. As Wiggins Wig-gins came in I happened to hit him low punches on two occasions. Each-time Each-time the referee warned me. Wiggins Wig-gins could have dropped and claimed a foul either time, and would have been awarded the fight. "But when the referee warned me, Wiggins turned to him with a snarl. 'Leave us alone,' he said, 'Tunney didn't hit me low. It was a fair punch.' Naturally that stopped the referee. The Gamest Fighter "About the fifth round," Tunney continued, "I whipped in with a right body uppercut and I used all I had. Chuck had come Ln fast and the punch landed low way below be-low the belt. Again the referee warned me and once again Wiggins told him to get away, that the punch was belt high. "But as we moved into a clinch Wiggins whispered, 'Say, Gene, keep 'em up a little. That last one hurt.' "That was Chuck Wiggins, the gamest, toughest man I ever fought. He could have claimed the fight three times against me that night, and gotten away with it. But not Chuck." "Wiggins always said Greb was the toughest man he ever fought," I suggested to Tunney. "I can't say he was wrong," Gene said with a grin. "I'll tell you something about Greb, too." "The last time I met Harry he was blind in one eye. Maybe the other wasn't any too good, but he was still something to handle. In one round as Greb came charging in I nailed him with a full right to the body. I could feel my glove a,gainst his spine. I saw his mouth fly open and his eyes start rolling. I stepped back to let Greb fall. I knew this was a knockout punch. "The next thing I knew Harry had me on the ropes trying to hammer my head off. I felt for a few seconds sec-onds that I was in a cage with a wild tiger. I had to finish the round protecting myself. That was Harry Greb." The Making of Tunney Commander Tunney will tell you that his battles with Chuck Wiggins and Harry Greb were the two main factors in getting him ready for the first Dempsey fight. Tunney won't admit that he thinks both Wiggins and Greb were even tougher than Dempsey, but that's how he feels down in his heart. I don't mean harder punchers. Neither Nei-ther was a killing puncher. But I mean rough, tough, to-hell-with-the-, rules, anything goes. In getting ready for Dempsey I'll' say for Tunney that he never picked the rose-patched or the' violet-bordered violet-bordered road. When he selected Chuck Wiggins, Harry Greb and Eubberman Risko he elected to walk through a garden of thorns and poison ivy Anyone who could wade through this trio, especially the Greb part, even though he was half blind, was about ready to walk into a cage and grab the raw meat away from a Bengal tiger Tunney still rates Greb the greatest great-est fighter he ever met. So does everyone else who ever met Greb, especially the bigger fellows who were his meat. Or you might ask Mickey Walker, on the smaller side, and about as good and as tough as they happened to come along. The ring knows a far longer list of great fighting men under 150 pounds than over that mark Jimmy Jim-my Wilde, Joe Gans, Kid Lavigne, Joe Walcott, Benny Leonard, Owen Moran, Frank Erne, Terry McGov-era, McGov-era, Driscoll, Welsh, Attell, Nelson, Wolgast, on anc on. And how many fighters, pound for pound, ever could match Harry Greb, Stanley Ketchell, Sam Lang-ford, Lang-ford, or Jack Blackburn? Greb at 160 almost murdered such heavyweights as Gene Tunney, Tom Gibbons, Jack Dillon and others from 190 to 200 pounds. |