Joe Grim

Joe Grim (born Saverio Giannone; March 16, 1881 – August 18, 1939) was an American boxer of the early 20th century.

Grim was born in Avellino, Campania, and he and his family emigrated to the United States when he was ten. As a boxer, he engaged in over 150 professional bouts; some sources put the figure at 300 to 500. Despite losing the majority of his fights, Grim became a popular fighter; his principal claim to fame was his ability to absorb heavy punishment without being knocked out, for which he was nicknamed "The Iron Man" and "The Human Punching Bag". Typically, at the end of a bout, he would go to the ropes and shout "I am Joe Grim. I fear no man on earth." In 1930 he was described in The Ring as "the greatest physical freak the prize ring ever knew... Grim offered his body as a target to fighters who outweighed him by many pounds. He has the strangest claim to glory that an athlete ever made." Fitzsimmons called Grim "the hardest proposition to knock out that I have ever met" and thought him "insensible to physical pain." Afterwards he said: "I just don't believe that man is made of flesh and blood."

His reputation as a man who could not be knocked out attracted numerous other high-profile opponents for Grim, among them Barbados Joe Walcott, Jack Blackburn, Joe Gans, Dixie Kid, Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, Battling Levinsky, and Peter Maher, all of whom were unable to stop him, despite many administering heavy beatings. The amount of punishment sustained by Grim during his fights led to calls for him to be banned from boxing. He tried unsuccessfully to secure a fight with reigning heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries. He promoted fights in Philadelphia and worked as a foreman in a shipyard in New York. 2021 novel Grimmish.