This is hard to dig out without reading a lot of biographies. What kind of work did boxers do before they started boxing? Here are the few I have heard about: Ali didn't do any kind of work as far as I know. Frazier was a butcher. Willard was a wheat farmer. Marciano did manual labor on highways and worked in a shoe factory. Dempsey was a hobo and did what he had to to eat. Liston was a thief and convict. Fitzsimmons was a blacksmith. Jeffries was a boilermaker. Any more?
Corbett was a bank teller Braddock worked the docks Carnera was a circus strongman Tunney, Sharkey and Norton were in the service