Riddle of The One-Eyed Boxers: Greb, Frazier, Harris and Seales In The Modern Era
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Boxers with eye injuries are a sensitive subject. It remains a safety danger for boxers to fight with eye injuries. When a fight incurs a detached retina, in boxing history that was the end of their career. When World heavyweight champion Joe Louis fought his friend Light Heavyweight champion John Henry Lewis at Madison Square Garden on January 25, 1939, Louis knocked out Lewis right away, who needed the money for an eye operation.
Four names immediately come to mind when it comes to one-eyed boxers: Harry Greb, Smokin’ Joe Frazier, Gypsy Joe Harris, and Sugar Ray Seales. Boxers of yesteryear could memorize eye charts and fool the experts. Today such an action would never pass wind with any boxing commission. All fighters face the standard eye tests and blood tests.
The late World Middleweight champion Harry Greb, The Pittsburgh Windmill, 108-8-3 with 49 knockouts. Greb died in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on October 26, 1926, from complications after eye surgery. Greb, who fought between 1913 and 1926, was thumbed in the eye by Kid Norfolk and suffered a retinal tear leading to blindness. Greb’s bout with Bob Roper lead to two months in the hospital with patches over both eyes. Greb later lost some sight in his good eye, leading him to go to sleep with the light on. His bouts with Gene Tunney and Mickey Walker remain legendary. In September 1926, Greb had his right eye removed and replaced with a glass eye. Greb planned to open a gym in downtown Pittsburgh. Greb checked into an Atlantic City clinic for surgery to repair damage to his nose and respiratory tract caused by his ring career and several car crashes. However, complications occurred and he died of heart failure at age 32 on October 22, 1926. Greb is buried in Calvary Cemetery in hometown Pittsburgh.
Middleweight contender Gypsy Joe Harris, 24-1 with nine knockouts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, won 24 consecutive bouts 1964 to 1968 from the start of his career, including coming off the deck in the ninth round in October 1967 to win a 10 round decision over tough Bobby Cassidy at Arena in Philadelphia. A 12 round loss to Emile Griffith in August 1968 was the last bout on Gypsy Joe’s career. Gypsy Joe had lost the sight in his right eye in a street fight at age eleven. His boxing license was revoked after the Griffith bout when the right eye issue was discovered. Gypsy Joe is buried in Merion Memorial Park, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. After his boxing career ended suddenly, Gypsy Joe worked various odd jobs, but was not the same person as Gypsy Joe the boxing contender. Gypsy Joe struggled with alcohol and drugs, leading to four heart attacks. He died of a heart failure at Temple University Hospital, where he had been hospitalized for a month, on March 6, 1990, at age 44, in Philadelphia.
Son of a one-armed moonshine runner, former World Heavyweight champion Smokin’ Joe Frazier, 32-4-1 with 27 knockouts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between 1965 and 1981 as a pro, Heavyweight Gold Medalist at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, was legally blind in his left eye due to a cataract for the majority of his career. Frazier suffered in later years from diabetes, high blood pressure, and multiple operations for a back injury sustained in a car accident. He was practically blind his left eye by 1974. In the 1960s, shards of metal landed in his eyes while training with a faulty speed bag in Philadelphia. His trainers kept it a secret so he could continue to fight, but a decade later, he developed cataracts from the scar tissue and lost most of his vision in his left eye. On June 15, 1976, Joe Frazier wore a contact lens in his left eye for his rematch with George Foreman. The lens got knocked out, and Joe got dropped twice in the fifth round and stopped. Joe died on November 7, 2011, at age 67, He is buried in Ivy Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. Joe and Gypsy Joe Harris were good friends in Philadelphia, The City of Brotherly Love.
Southpaw middleweight Sugar Ray Seales, 57-8-3 with 34 knockouts, Tacoma, Washington, by way of St. Croix, Virgin Islands, who won a Gold Medalist at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, fought between 1973 and 1983. In November 1974, he fought Marvelous Marvin Hagler to a 10 round majority draw in Seattle. Seales held the NABF and USBA American Middleweight regional titles. In 1980, Seales injured his left eye in a fight with Jaime Thomas, and retired due to a serious retinal tear. He was subsequently declared legally blind. Years later, doctors operated and restored Seales’ vision in his right eye, though he wears glasses. Seales later worked as a schoolteacher of autistic students at Lincoln High School in Tacoma for 17 years, retiring in 2004. In 2006, he moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, with his wife, and currently teaches at Indy Boxing and Grappling. He is a member of the Indiana Boxing Hall of Fame. Seales will turn 70 years old on September 4, 2022, a rare example of a boxer who recovered from an eye operation.
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