Journeyman discussion

Great post.

I dig the above Randy Smith mention, don't know if I've ever seen anyone bring him up before.

He took everyone the distance... Hopkins, Nunn, Tate, Eubank, McCallum, Don Lee, Victor Cordoba, Barkley, Kinchen, Olijide.

There was a fairly recent Eubank interview where he said Smith was the slickest guy he was ever in the ring with.

 

George s**** iron Johnson fought 3 Hall of Famers in a two your period.

 

There was a middleweight from Liverpool in the sixties and early seventies called Harry Scott who lost 30 odd times but was a real tough cookie.
He was considered a good prospect but was put in with good fighters early in his career and he basically ended up fighting as a high class journeyman for most of his career.
Ruben Hurricane Carter came over in the sixties and stopped Scott on cuts with Scott winning, a short while later Carter came back for a return and Scott beat him on points.
The rest of his resume reads men like Nino Benvenuti,Emile Griffith,Laszlo Papp, Sandro Mazzinghi,Alan Minter,Kevin Finnegan,Tom Bogs,Chris Finnegan and Bunny Sterling many away from home,and Griffith apart none of them stopped him.

 

Wow many, many come to mind. Growing up with Tuesday Night Fights, ESPN boxing, Prime Sports and many other outlets (it was all over in the 80's/90's) we would get to see these guys a lot. From time to time they would pull an upset.

Mike Dixon, I remember seeing him lose to Lewis, Seldon and Mercer. The Mercer fight he landed bombs on Ray I remember but Ray with his iron chin just walked thru them and eventually stopped him. But Dixon was game. I remember him dropping Alex Garcia with one winging left hook, Garcia rose but was gone and pummeled forcing the ref to stop it. That was Dixons big win, Garcia was ranked in the top 5 (top 3 if memory serves) Garcia was closing in on a title shot or a big money fight with Foreman at the time. Dixon went on to lose his next fight to Phil Jackson, Jackson turned that win into a fight with Lennox Lewis on HBO for Lewis's wbc title belt.

Some others that come to mind and wins they pulled

Jerry "slice" Jones. Impressive upsets, Carl Williams, Michael Bentt.

Garring Lane SMOKED Combacking Alex Garcia with a monster left hook, on Prime Sports I can still hear Barry Mcguigan screaming LEFT HOOK!!!!!

Marion Wilson, he was mentioned earlier by someone I remember him dropping and cutting Jeremy Williams when ESPN was trying to push Williams as the new Mike Tyson, Williams played it well always stalking in the corner like a caged lion ala Tyson plus he was trained by Rooney and had Team Tyson running his early career.

Rocky Pepeli

Louis Monaco put Buster Douglas to sleep and Mcneeley

Maurice "Mo" Harris took out Jimmy Thunder

Mark Wills knocked Greg Page around on 2 different occasions

Levi Billups beat Bonecrusher Smith (another Prime Sports classic)

Quinn Navarre
Darroll Wilson

I could literally go on and on but my 2 year old is literally pulling me away from my computer.. I'll be back later

 

Your correct about Harry Scott. some other excellent journeymen fighters who come to mind are. Nick Wiltshire, Kevin & Chris Finnigan, Scott Welch, Brian London, Kirkland Laing all from the U.K. from abroad i enjoyed Mike"Bounty"Hunter, Jeremy Williams, Jeff Sims, Tex Cobb, Scott LeDoux, Juan Roldan, Frank Fletcher, Bob Satterfield, Caveman Lee all great value-for-money fighters

 

Absolutely!! You literally knew the majority of the fighters who held a world ranking back then (especially heavyweights) because Tuesday Night Fights was on every week!!! I'd love a weekly boxing show like that today! It gave guys is the middle like James Thunder great exposure and comebacking former champs like Foreman or Holmes, Dokes, Witherspoon and on and on shots at staying busy and keeping their names out there. So many great memories. The Rid**** Bowe - Elijah Tillery brawl where Tillery kicked Bowe and Rock Neumann pulled Tillery over the top rope as Bowe punched him!!! Or how about during the Rid**** Bowe vs Phil Brown post fight interview when Mark Roberts (Ray Mercer's Mgr) while being interviewed was calling for a fight between Bowe and Mercer and Rock Neumann pushed him nearly starting a riot all with Al Albert and Sean O'grady right in the middle. And also lets not forget Tyrone Trice the former welterweight champion knocking out Ron Collins at the Palace in Auburn hills and then grabbing the Microphone and claiming that he'd make a 50,000 dollar bet with James Toney that he would knock him out in less than 10 rounds anytime he wanted too. Which led to toney entering the ring in street clothes grabbing the mic and saying "Bring your ass Tyrone we can get busy right now" CLASSIC!!! This was the young in shape bad ass prime James Toney days!!!!!! Michael Moorer would also grab the mic once after he and Frankie Swindell's fight was stopped early because of a cut to Frankie. Moorer's quote "Hey we can do it again hey man quit being a ***** and take the defeat!!! Lol.. Damn I miss that show!

 

I remember Randy Smith. He was strong, had a great chin, but was lacking in skills. He was a good workout for many contenders.

 

" Have gloves will travel"!

 

We certainly have different ideas as to what constitutes a journeyman!

Harold Brazier is a guy I liked a lot.

 

I remember the pictures of his little shhitbox Honda in Ring Magazine with 200,000 miles on it.

 

I'd rate Brazier above journeyman. Early in his career he upset guys he was supposed to lose to like Brian Baronet, John Meekins and Joey Ruiz. He mostly lost to elite fighters like Whitaker, Meldrick Taylor, Roger Mayweather and Juan Coggi. And the Mayweather and Coggi fights were for championships and close decisions.

 

Tuesday night fights was a very good series overall. Yes, sometimes you'd get mismatches when they'd bring in a big name - see many Larry Holmes appearances in the early '90's, but there were a lot of barnburners between decently matched fringe contenders and contenders. One highlight was when they selected a main event based on fan votes. The fans voted for prospect Oba Carr v. former champion Livingstone Bramble. That turned out to be a war.

 

I vividly remember that Tyrone Trice incident with James Toney. That was a fun time. I think USA was where the top light heavyweights were in the audience & there was talk of a big unification. Moorer, Hill, Dennis Andries. Never happened of course.

I remember Everett "Bigfoot" Martin surviving against Foreman & yelling "I went the distance with a legend"! Foreman owned the journeymen back then.

 

Speaking of Foreman opponents, this thread got me to look at a list of boxers he fought in his comeback. I watched a lot of them back then. I noticed one, Carlos Hernandez, passed away fairly young in 98. He fought Foreman the week of Tyson vs Spinks if I remember correctly. Camacho got dropped for the first time the night before. Any info on what happened to Hernandez?