{{short description|American boxer}} {{Infobox boxer | image = Joe Grim 1904.jpg | name = Joe Grim | nationality = American | realname = Saverio Giannone | nickname = The Iron Man | weight = Middleweight<br>Welterweight |birth_date = {{birth date|1881|03|16}} |birth_place = Avellino, Campania, Italy |death_date = {{Death date and age|1939|08|18|1881|03|16}} |death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States | home = | reach = | height = 5′ 7″ (1.7m) | style = Orthodox | total = 152 | wins = 24 | KO = 10 | losses = 104 | draws = 22 | no contests = 2 }}'''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.<ref name="iron man">{{cite news|url=http://www.onmilwaukee.com/sports/articles/joegrim.html|title="Iron Man" Joe Grim found fame with a thick skull|publisher=OnMilwaukee.com|date=January 7, 2013|access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref><ref name="ironclad">{{cite news|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1085005/1/index.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140130232521/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1085005/1/index.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 30, 2014|title=The Ironclad Punching Bag|publisher=Sports Illustrated|date= June 21, 1971|access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref><ref name="legendary">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19440512&id=dvJHAAAAIBAJ&pg=2804,1974348|title=Grim Became Legendary As The Man Nobody Could Knock Out|publisher=The Victoria Advocate|date=May 12, 1944|access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19240409&id=urkgAAAAIBAJ&pg=2489,623852|title=Joe Grim Was World Champion Door-Mat|publisher=The Lewiston Daily Sun|date=April 9, 1924|access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref><ref name="defi">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19031102&id=I50wAAAAIBAJ&pg=3045,6554562|title=Joe Grim Issues Defi To Jeffries|publisher=The Deseret News|date=November 2, 1903|access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19041030&id=IAAbAAAAIBAJ&pg=5958,6378178|title=Joe Grim Coming|publisher=The Pittsburgh Press|date=October 30, 1904|access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref><ref name="barred">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19040223&id=YRYbAAAAIBAJ&pg=3594,3023230|title=Joe Grim Should Be Barred From Ring|publisher=The Pittsburgh Press|date=February 23, 1904|access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1084719/4/index.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203141027/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1084719/4/index.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 3, 2014|title=No Requiem For A Heavyweight|publisher=Sports Illustrated|date=April 5, 1971|access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref> 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."<ref name="iron man"/> Robert W. Edgren opined that "knocking the Iron Man down with fists is a waste of time and effort, for he keeps getting up. To drop Grim for a long count, a boxer – if permitted – should use a crowbar or a baseball bat."<ref name="ironclad"/>
In 1903 Grim took on former heavyweight champion Bob Fitzsimmons. Grim "took a battering... that would have killed an ordinary man" and was knocked down repeatedly, but rose to his feet every time and lasted the distance.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=37&dat=19031024&id=HwAIAAAAIBAJ&pg=2275,1041090|title=Grim Stays the Limit with Fitz|publisher=St. John Daily Sun|date=October 24, 1903|access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref> Fitzsimmons called Grim "the hardest proposition to knock out that I have ever met" and thought him "insensible to physical pain."<ref name="defi"/> Two years later Grim faced future heavyweight champion Jack Johnson. Johnson dominated the six-round fight and by one estimate scored seventeen knockdowns, but Grim again made it to the final bell. Between rounds Johnson remarked to his cornermen: "he ain't human."<ref>{{cite book | author=Ward, Geoffrey C.| title=Unforgiveable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson| publisher=Random House| year=2005| isbn=978-0-7126-0977-7| pages=74–75}}</ref> Afterwards he said: "I just don't believe that man is made of flesh and blood."<ref name="casey">{{cite web|url=http://www.boxing.com/joe_grim_how_to_take_it_and_then_some.html|title=Joe Grim: How to Take It and Then Some|publisher=Boxing.com|author=Mike Casey|access-date=2014-01-30|archive-date=2018-09-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915114829/http://www.boxing.com/joe_grim_how_to_take_it_and_then_some.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
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.<ref name="legendary"/> Gans gave him a "severe pounding" and knocked him down in most rounds.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19031020&id=GJ0wAAAAIBAJ&pg=2232,5091199|title=Grim Stayed Again|publisher=The Deseret News|date=October 20, 1903|access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref> The amount of punishment sustained by Grim during his fights led to calls for him to be banned from boxing.<ref name="barred"/> Though Grim did not win many bouts, he was credited with a newspaper decision over former welterweight champion Matty Matthews in 1904.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=QDEWnZBrHwAC&dat=19040417&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|title=Grim Beat Matty Matthews|publisher=Philadelphia Record|date=April 17, 1904|access-date=2014-02-02}}</ref> He tried unsuccessfully to secure a fight with reigning heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries.<ref name="defi"/> His run came to an end when he was knocked out by Sailor Burke in 1906. Four years later, he was knocked out by Sam McVea in Paris.<ref name="casey"/>
Grim began to suffer mental health issues and was admitted to a sanitarium in 1913, before being released in 1916.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19160517&id=fP0gAAAAIBAJ&pg=1522,2062992|title=Old Joe Grim is Now Leading Simple Life|publisher=The Day|date=May 17, 1916|access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref> He promoted fights in Philadelphia and worked as a foreman in a shipyard in New York.<ref name="casey"/> In later life he was committed to the Philadelphia Hospital for Mental Diseases, where he died in 1939.
Grim's tour of Australia in 1908-09 formed the basis for Michael Winkler's critically-acclaimed<ref>{{Cite web|last=Stinson|first=Emmett|title=The 'exploded non-fiction novel': Michael Winkler's Grimmish|url=https://overland.org.au/2021/06/the-exploded-non-fiction-novel-michael-winklers-grimmish/|access-date=2022-01-07|website=Overland literary journal|date=22 June 2021 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Cothren|first=Alex|date=2021-03-23|title=Alex Cothren reviews 'Grimmish' by Michael Winkler|url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/962-april-2021-no-430/7608-alex-cothren-reviews-grimmish-by-michael-winkler|access-date=2022-01-07|website=Australian Book Review|language=en-gb}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Hauser|first=Thomas|date=2021-12-19|title=Literary Notes: "Grimmish" (Book Review by Thomas Hauser)|url=https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-boxing-articles-boxing-news-videos-rankings-and-results/71290-literary-notes-grimmish-book-review-by-thomas-hauser|access-date=2022-01-07|website=The Sweet Science|language=en-US}}</ref> 2021 novel ''Grimmish''.
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{boxrec|id=10815}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grim, Joe}} Category:1881 births Category:1939 deaths Category:Italian emigrants to the United States Category:Middleweight boxers Category:Sportspeople from Avellino Category:Welterweight boxers Category:American male boxers