?Such a hold has boxing on the boys that take part in it, they are willing to risk, very foolishly, Nature?s most handsome gift ? sight??
Boxing is a sport that has never been kind on its participant?s bodies. Broken bones, cuts and concussions occur with a regularity unseen in many other sports. It stands to reason that boxing is a sport that can forever change a man, sometimes for the better and sadly, sometimes for the worse.
The improvements in medical science have seen the amount of fatalities and serious injuries in the sport decline in recent times but it hasn?t always been this way.
The old-timers of the sport often endured more hardships, medically, than most of today?s fighters and the fact that so many of them had serious, untreated eye injuries is testament to this.
The human eye is as an amazing organ as any. The ability to see is something we often take for granted. Light, color, beauty and wonder all occur thanks to the images the human eye takes in.
It?s a prerequisite in modern boxing for a fighter to have sufficient vision in order to be allowed to fight. The World Boxing Council (WBC) specifies that a boxer should not have uncorrected visual acuities less than 6/9 in one eye and 6/18 in the other. Visual acuity simply refers to the size of lettering that one can read at a distance of six meters or 20 feet away.
Such stringent standards haven?t always been paramount to a boxer entering the ring to fight. There are many cases of fighters sustaining eye injuries in bouts that would forever alter their vision yet it done little to prevent them from fighting on.
Harry Greb is the best known example of a boxer with eye problems from fighting. Greb was thought to have fought many of his bouts, post-1921, without the sight of his right eye. Such a feat is unimaginable in today?s fight game. To be able to win so many fights with just one eye is commendable and astonishing, yet it begs the question as to why was he allowed to fight whilst so obviously unfit to do so.
Greb was thumbed in the eye during a fight with Kid Norfolk in 1921 and suffered what many believed to be a detached or torn retina. The injury would eventually lead to Greb losing all sight in his right eye.
The Lewiston Daily Sun ran an article, just days after Greb?s death, confirming the fact that he fought without the vision in his right eye.
?Harry Greb, former middleweight champion of the world, who died in a private sanatorium here on Friday, won his championship and also the major portion of his boxing honors while blind in one eye. This was vouchsafed by close friends here today when their pledge of secrecy had been removed by the death of the gallant fighter.
?Greb, they say, had been totally blind in his right eye for five years today when their pledge of secrecy bout with ?Kid? Norfolk in New York in 1921. Physicians four years ago advised its removal for fear the infection of the detached retina would spread to his other eye. He, however, was reluctant to submit to an operation.?
Ironically, Greb?s death was indirectly caused due to his eye problems as he was injured during an automobile accident just after having final treatment of the removal of a cataract in his right eye. He died on the operating table whilst having a fractured bone from his nose removed that occurred during the accident. The Montreal Gazette article on October 26, 1926 confirms the set of events that brought about his untimely death.
?Harry Greb, former middleweight champion, and the only man to beat Gene Tunney, present world?s heavyweight champion, died in a sanitarium here this afternoon, following a minor operation last night for the removal of a fractured bone from his nose, an injury received in an automobile accident at Pittsburgh two weeks ago.
?Following the operation Greb fell into a state of coma from which he failed to rally, and death was attributed to heart failure super-induced by the shock of the operation, combined with the injuries received in the accident.?
The loss of a fighter of the caliber of Greb is something that only adds to the mystery of the man. A man who fought the best the world had to offer and conquered them all with just the sight in one eye is the stuff of legend. The fact that no film of him fighting remains also adds to this legend and whilst boxing fans and historians marvel at his conquests, it remains to be seen as to whether a man would willingly risk his sight for such conquests so blindly, for want of a better term.
Harry Greb was but one of many men who would have serious eye issues from their time in the ring. Tiger Flowers, the man who took Greb?s middleweight title from him, was another who would suffer the ill effects of pugilism on his vision and sadly passed away on the operating table whilst undergoing eye surgery.
The great Sam Langford was yet another who was to suffer the indignation of a loss of vision from his years in the ring and as described in Clay Moyle?s biography entitled Sam Langford ? Boxing?s Greatest Uncrowned Champion, he was to lucky enough to be given the gift of sight once again.
?It?s wonderful to be able to take a man out of the darkness. There must be some satisfaction for the Doc on that. He?s a marvellous man. You?ve all made me the happiest man in the world. Only a man who has lost his sight and had it brought back to him can understand how I feel. Just bless you all.?
The gift of sight is often as taken for granted as the ability to make something of oneself in the sport of boxing. Unfortunately the two often negate each other. Perhaps the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette summed it up best in an article from September 1, 1930, pertaining to two brothers who fought on though they were each blind in one eye.
?Such a hold has boxing on the boys that take part in it, they are willing to risk, very foolishly, Nature?s most handsome gift ? sight, to see the stars, and the oceans, the rivers, and hills and trees, a privilege often overlooked in the face of relatively slight misadventures in life.?
