Billy Conn was actually in the Bum Of The Month Club, I think. Louis had fought every month for the six months prior, Billy Conn was membership number 7.
I personally think 0-1 Charlie "Ultra Bum" Zelenoff was memorable. Talked up a shitstorm for yeeeaaarrsss about how he was the greatest of all time, how he was faster than Ali, how he could punch 8 times per second harder than Tyson .... and when he finally stepped into a ring, he got pounded out pathetically. http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/446405 By this (2-28-0) guy: http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/260189
There's no better example of the destructive use of the word really. God knows how many hours you alone have spent on this forum typing ripostes to posts that are informed by the name the bum of the month club. Not directly, necessarily, just posts replying to semi-casuals who have been hearing about the bum of the month club for years and think that even guys like Conn are in it.
Agreed .. it is amazing how easy it is for some to call a pro boxer or any pro athlete a bum from the internet or balcony .. I mean to degrade a pro athlete for something they could never accomplish themselves is just laughable ..
There are good and bad in all aspects of life. To me, an overachiever with nothing but the will to have an iron constitution, take the punishment fiight his fight against anyone like Hamsho or M. Ward is forever a hero and champion. A Cooney Witherspoon Page Czyz who get silverspooned are lackadaisical and heartless in the firefight, yes have all the talent in the world but spit it out like rotten fruit, are bums. Great example, Tommy Ayers, had everything and was too stupid and UNDISCIPLINED to use it. Maybe it is generations. My father was a Marine Major who fought in the south Pacific in WWII. You learned has to act early. No coddling bull****. The whole day before weighins coddles the lazy fighter afraid to match up at his real weight. Clint Eastwood said it. He said it was a pu#+y generation. He was right.
So modern fighters drain themselves and cut weight over weeks of grueling training camp sessions because they're lazy?
The thing is, there are missmatched guys making up the numbers with absolutely no interest in winning. “Loss for hire” types. But some of them can really put on a good show. Professional losers who are actually professional enough to go through the motions, put up enough resistance not to rip off the fans, they fight every week, they turn up, fight short notice, and really keep the sport going. Never call those guys bums. Not while that word is used for hobos and tramps. These guys don’t win. They don’t even want to win. A hobo or a tramp, pan handling Drunks and crack heads... guys who sleep under a bridge that smell of urine...they fall under the umbrella of “Bum” so I don’t think that is fair. Often the term is used only because one guy is seriously mismatched. It’s just a question of match making. The gulf is so bad that the loser is made to look like a non boxer. Does that make the loser a bum or does it just reflect badly on the promoter? Does a formerly good fighter who has disgraced himself deserve to be called a bum? Can’t he just be a formerly good fighter who disgraced himself? Why the connection with creatures sleeping under a bridge? What other sport do we have where a participant can officially be called a word that conjures up the image of urine soaked lost cause who sleeps outdoors? I blame middleclass press men who secretly have a hidden disdain for the class of people who predominantly take up professional boxing. On rare occasions guys turn up in fights who are not actual boxers. Bogus records, bogus names, they are so bad nobody would use them twice. Perhaps those guys, since they should not be in a ring, could be termed that way. But I don’t trust that there are enough to deserve that term since nobody can use them twice. It’s just too dangerous.