The Conn-Greb Boxing Club

09/08/2026

From John L. Sullivan, the first heavyweight champion, until the crowning of our own Michael Moorer, several holders of what was once dubbed "The most prestigious title in sports" contested in Pittsburgh.

Here are those champs listed chronologically, with the years they fought locally in parenthesis.

The most prolific was Ezzard Charles, the "Cincinnati Cobra," who had his breakthrough fight here (vs Charley Burley) and fought in the Steel City so often that he became an adopted son.

Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Joe Frazier, Jack Johnson, Larry Holmes, Buster Douglas, Sonny Liston, et al....they all came to town.
("Pittsburgh Boxing: A Pictorial History" is available on Amazon)

09/07/2026

09/07/2026

Wishing everyone a relaxing Labor Day! The gym will be closed Monday, but we’ll be back in action Tuesday morning at 7AM. See you then! 🥊

09/05/2026

SMOKIN' IN SMOKETOWN
There’s a saying in boxing that goes “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”

But can the logical counterpoint to that cliché’ be “The bigger the tree, the harder it is to chop down”?

It didn’t matter either way to “Smokin’ Joe” Frazier, who came to Pittsburgh in 1966 to fight native son Don “Toro” Smith, a 6’3 240-pound giant. “I’ll fight a lion with a toothpick!” he once declared, and nobody doubted that the fierce Philadelphian would.

Johnny Morris was Pittsburgh’s hope for a championship and the last in a long line of outstanding 160-Lbers to come out of here. He was a smooth boxer and had beaten top contenders like George Benton and Rubin “Hurricane” Carter.

Morris, the veteran boxer, and Frazier, the young slugger, co-headlined at the Civic Arena. Both used left hands to fight their way to victory-- Morris using his as a spear, Frazier employing his as a wrecking ball.

Before the bout “Toro” Smith said that since he and Frazier were “both punchers” that he didn’t see the fight going the distance. He was correct.

The Pittsburgh Press: “Smith’s strategy was to lean his 237 pounds against Frazier; the way it worked out, he was leaning against an avalanche of left hooks.”

Frazier floored and bloodied “Toro,” gave him a beating in the second, and then applied the finisher in round three, referee Buck McTiernan counting Don out.

The Olympic Gold Medalist was now 8-0 with 8 KOs and well on his way to becoming heavyweight champion of the world.

Morris jabbed and hooked Jesse Smith, his foe, dropping him twice and winning an easy decision. He later said he wanted KO Smith to make himself more marketable for a title shot against champion Emile Griffith, who'd beaten Dick Tiger only days earlier.

Sadly, that shot never arrived. Johnny would have two more fights in two years and then retire (he later trained the Conn-Greb Boxing Club’s own Mike McSorley as an amateur).

09/03/2026

Joe Choynski and Jack Johnson in jail after their illegal 1901 boxing match.

Scheduled for 20 rounds, it was won by the more experienced Choynski by a crushing one-punch knockout in round 3.

Joe saw promise in the young fighter and gave him some key boxing tips to better his game while they were locked up.

The bottom photo was taken years later when Choynski (pronounced "Coy-IN-ski") was athletic director at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association.

Note the PAA logo on his shirt.

09/02/2026

ROONEY THE ENFORCER
“Joe Choynski had a paralyzing punch. He was the hardest puncher in the last 50 years.”—Jack Johnson, heavyweight champion.
“Choynski had me box with a boy I’d never seen before-- a short, chunky fellow with a laughing Irish face. The first thing he did was almost knock my head off with a punch on the chin. He was the hardest hitter I’d ever faced. I had a lot of respect for him when I took off the gloves.

He could have been champion if he went pro. But he wanted to be a ball player. He was Art Rooney, now owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers.”—Val Grunenwald, 1943
It wasn't wise to underestimate either Joe Choynski or Art Rooney. Appearances are deceiving, and both of these men surprised their fair share of boxers in the ring.

Only weighing 170 Lbs, Choynski still managed to KO future champ Jack Johnson with a single punch. Jack respected Joe, and later became his student while jailed together after their (illegal) prizefight.

Johnson gave much credit to Choynski for helping him become a great fighter. Years later Art Rooney would benefit from the same tutelage.

After retiring, Choynski moved to Pittsburgh and became instructor at the P.A.A. Rooney was a good amateur who frequented that gym and came under his influence.

Rooney wasn’t scrawny like Joe, but his “laughing Irish face” and gentlemanly manner gave some the same misconception that could lead an opponent to underestimate him.

And like Choynski, Art had a punch that foes remembered decades after it landed.

One of those recipients was Val Grunenwald, himself a top amateur (and later stablemate of Harry Greb).

Choynski was a temperamental man. When a young pug showed grit, dedication, talent and discipline, he was generous in his praise. But you had to prove yourself first.

At some point previously, Rooney must have shown Joe what he needed to see in order to be employed as his lieutenant when Grunenwald had to pass one of Choynski’s acid tests.

Val was tossed into the ring with the smilin' Irish Northsider and took his lumps. It was a rough time.

But it gave him a great story that he was still telling a quarter century later. -- Douglas Cavanaugh

08/31/2026

"The Pittsburgh Kid" vs. The New York Mob
Mobster Frankie Carbo liked what he saw in Billy Conn. So, he walked into the NY gym Conn was training in and announced “I’ve got a piece of your fighter” to manager Johnny Ray.

Carbo was used to getting his way and managers usually gave him no sass. So, it must have shocked him when Ray shot back “No, you don’t.”

Johnny was a true Pittsburgher and didn’t intimidate easily. Conn heard them arguing and rushed to Ray’s defense, letting Carbo know that he wasn’t wanted or needed. Frankie left but given his history and reputation, he'd be back.

Art Rooney, a close friend of Conn’s, was on friendly terms with Owney Madden, aka “Owney the Killer.” Madden was a powerful Irish mobster operating in a mostly Italian underworld and had been burying men since Carbo was in diapers.

He was the power behind heavyweight champion Primo Carnera years earlier, a lucrative venture that garnered him much favor with his Italian and Jewish criminal cohorts. In short, he carried far more clout than Carbo despite his Irish parentage.

Rooney made a call and pulled a few strings that made it clear to Carbo that there were smarter ways to do business than clashing with Madden.

Conn verified that he and Johnny Ray were visited by Cockeye Dunn two days after the Carbo incident. A brutal waterfront gangster, Dunn had a reputation as a vicious gunman (he would later die in the Sing Sing electric chair). He assured them that there would be no further trouble from the Mob or Carbo.

It turned out that Cockeye Dunn was right. Frankie Carbo continued as the Mob’s boxing czar, but he never meddled in the Conn camp again. – Douglas Cavanaugh

08/27/2026

MUHAMMAD ALI and FRITZIE ZIVIC: The Mouths that Roared
Young heavyweight Cassius Clay (soon to be “Muhammad Ali”) met Charlie Powell at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena on January 24, 1963. Prior to the bout Clay had predicted a three-round KO and that's exactly what happened.

But Clay’s performance outside of the ring impressed everyone even more than what happened inside of it. In the weeks leading up to and after the bout, he never let his mouth rest for one second.

Whether he was performing his wildly entertaining verbal diatribe for sportswriters or just chatting it up with the locals on the streets of the Hill District, young Clay was a one-man show, endearing himself to everyone with his rapid-fire speeches, poetry and clever turns of phrase.

Former welterweight champ Fritzie Zivic had always been quite the talker in his day, too. He was reserved and polite but spoke at a rapid clip when excited.

“I don’t talk too fast, people just don’t listen fast enough!” was how Fritzie explained it away.

The town wasn’t big enough for the two of them, and when Zivic was booked on a TV show, he challenged Cassius to a poetry contest. Zivic got the ball rolling in the Pittsburgh Press: “I want to give this message to Cassius Clay: “Your poetry’s atrocious; you are making Liston ferocious!”

(No record exists of Clay answering the playful challenge by the slugging Croat from Lawrenceville). – Douglas Cavanaugh

08/24/2026

Come out this Thursday at 6PM for our Power Punching Clinic with WBC #13-ranked Lyubo “The Demolition Man” Pinchuk.

With 17 victories and 11 KOs, “The Demolition Man” owns a 65% knockout rate and will break down the technique behind generating real punching power.

FREE for Conn-Greb members / $50 drop-in for non-members.

08/24/2026

Imagine the scenario: a deserted arena.

All is still where a mere hour before, all was cheers and celebration.

Now all is silence.

A forlorn boxer stands alone, mulling over his lost (or never-realized fortunes) long after the lights have gone out and the crowds have gone home.

He knows the gangsters are out there

Out there in the alley

…waiting for him.

Welcome to the world of Film Noir.
Boxing was often the subject of these gritty movies, films like “The Set Up” (in which Robert Ryan name drops HARRY GREB!) “Body and Soul” “The Harder They Fall” and the noir-influenced classic “Raging Bull.”

Boxing and film noir were a perfect fit, both filled with the same shadowy imagery and dangerous but unforgettable characters.

The cigarette smoke, the back room deals and the hard luck stories; the profanity-spewing spectators, the mobsters, racketeers, pimps, hustlers and con men.

New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco were most closely associated with the genre. But Pittsburgh very much encompassed the noir imagery too.

But the gangsters never got the same control over the Steel City that they did over those other places.

There was too broad of an ethnic mix here, too many cultural mindsets that the mobsters couldn't understand, and therefore couldn't control.

Our boxers and managers weren't afraid to look these out-of-town torpedoes right in the eye and say "no."

…and furthermore, that they could shove their threats where the ocean breeze don't blow, the bulges in their trenchcoat pockets be damned.

HARRY GREB, BILLY CONN, RED MASON, JOHNNY RAY, TOMMY YAROSZ and WILLIE DAVIES all did exactly that, and are a shining example of this breed of men.

They refused to do business with the dark dealers, no matter what threats were leveled or cash buyouts were offered.

Some became world champions anyway, like Greb and Conn.

Others, like Davies and Yarosz, paid dearly for their “no.”

Not with their lives, but with the shattering of their championship hopes and dreams.

The imagery that captures the noir aspects of the era’s boxing and film noir is compelling.

Enjoy!

(Featured boxers: Sammy Angott, Buck McTiernan, Henry Armstrong, Jake LaMotta, Al Hostak, Rocky Graziano)

“There are no happy endings.” – Noir Proverb