I've always had a great deal of admiration for Ferguson when he was active and now that he's retired and reflecting on his record, he actually had a respectable career as journeyman go.. Ferguson has a few solid wins over James Douglas, Ray Mercer, Samson Po'uha, Obed Sullivan, Reggie Gross and George Chaplin.. Of his 18 defeats, about the worst opponent I could find who beat him was probably Anders Ecklund who stood 6'7" and weighed over 230 lbs. Ferguson also worked as a sparring partner for a few notable heavyweights and fought until roughly 41 or 42 years of age.. Not a bad career.
I don't know if he makes that cut, but even if he doesn't, being just outside it isn't unrealistic.. The man took on insane opposition, even if he lost most of the time.
Ferguson was pretty good when he was in shape. He probably took on the role of "the opponent" a bit too readily sometimes, if we're honest. He had what they call "sparring partner syndrome". A few of his losses were debatable decisions too, including the second fight with Mercer, and the fight with McCall. He had a prime Carl Williams on the deck once or twice and was actually disqualified for holding against Tyson, if I remember rightly, but the commission changed the result to a TKO to maintain the Tyson KO run.
He fought 12 HW Champs ( inc wba , wbc, Ibf ) though he only beat 1 of them ( Douglas ) it,s still pretty impressive. also it,s hard to rate contenders . no boxing expert would rank him outside the top 200.
The oliver McCall - Jesse Ferguson fight was on ESPN. I saw that one live. It was pretty boring, but I agree that it could have gone either way. And McCall was coming fresh off the knockout win over Seldon so he was starting to gain a little marketability as a decent opponent.
I've watched many of his fights recently. Douglas - it was an even fight which could've gone either way. The scores were too wide. Douglas almost knocked Jesse out at the end of the 1st with fantastic uppercut. A very good win. Mercer 1 - Ray underestimated Jesse, and Ferguson won easily, 98-92 IMO. Another good win. Mercer 2 - Mercer in excellent shape, motivated. IMO Ray won 96-93, action-packed fight. Bowe - Ferguson was in great shape, but prime Rid**** was too much for him. Pouha - schooling and nice KO over hard hitting opponent Also he scored a good win over Sullivan, NABF champion, who gave tough fights to many top-opponents (haven't seen this bout) Overall, IMO, Ferguson resume is comparable to Puritty (green Wlad, draw with Morrison, KOs over Hipp and Gonzalez). But Jesse was more skilled while Ross had better chin and hit slightly harder.
Jesse does not belong in any top 100 list. He was a lower top 10 hwt contender at best during his career.
I liked the guy, And I respected his fortitude. after all he beat Mercer, who arguably beat the best Heavyweight since Ali in Lewis, and almost killed Morrison.. He had some real disappointing loses too, why did he foul out against Tyson, and how in the hell did he look so weak against Bowe??.. Yea I would have no problem with him in the top 100 ATG HEAVYWEIGHT.. After all he competed in a very tough rough era of Heavyweight boxing, the 90's guy's were not as good as the 70's but they were solid, and very competitive.
The Tyson fight was not close. Tyson was punishing him. The uppercut that floored Jesse was devastating at it was after this fight that Tyson, in a sociopathic moment, stated "I try to push the nose into the brain." I guess they stopped it because of excessive holding but Jessee was not gonna win that fight. I think his best moment was outhustling a woefully out of shape Mercer and not accepting Ray's generous offer to throw the fight. Ray blew a title shot and Jessee got it instead.
He can make n all time top 50 list at HW. Far better resume at HW than Max Schmelling, Ingemar Johansson, Gene Tunney. About as good and possibly better resume than Wladimir Klitschko. I know that wins over bums count a lot here as long as they are considered title fights and come in succession, but it does not work this way in my lists.