the greatest journeyman

mine is buck smith. the man was just a fringe contender at best, but managed to get into the record books for his 118 knockout victories.
and he did it by teaching himself to box and never had a trainer.

manning galloway also deserves a mention.

 

Good mention, I would vote Pernell Whitaker.

 

George"Scrapiron"Johnson,Marion Wilson,Ross Purity, Levi Billups,BigFoot Martin,Saul Montana,

 

Dumb respond for a stupid post. Charles had ca. 120 fights, Whitaker 45, big difference, Charles has also the deeper resume...

 

James J Braddock
Mickey Wards

 

Would Kevin Pompay qualify?
Reggie Strickland ?
Tony Rutledge ?
Bruce Strauss?

 

I've always thought of a journeyman as someone who loses who he's supposed to lose to, and beats who he's supposed to beat. The
"best" journeymen break the pattern once or twice in their career and become loved for it - Braddock winning the World title, Ward beating Gatti (Although I admit he was immensley respected even prior to this)

They're basically good fighters who aren't realistically expected to contend for a title, but may prove to be a banana peel and will give you a good fight.

Lovemore N'Dou is probably my favourite current. You have to love Ward.

I don't consider Jersey Joe a journeyman, I think that's a little disrespectful to a solid contender with an incredible resume and some impressive wins.

 

What a surprise that you defend Pernell. Fact is, never mind what the thread creator asked, a great fighter like Charles and the noun journeyman don´t fit eachother, like Prince and women. If Whitaker would have fought the calibres of Louis, Walcott, Marciano, Satterfield, Wallace, Layne, Valdes, Johnson, Bivins, Brion, Maxim, Oma, Ray, Moore, Burley, etc. he would have also more losses. Same with Marciano, if he would have fought Foreman, Ali, Liston, etc. he wouldn´t also be undefeated, that´s logical. Charles career has so many great names in it, not comparable with Whitaker´s resume. And with your childish swearwords, it would be better you reserve and save them for your mother...

 

I guess by the criteria outlined Jack Johnson would be the obvious choice.

Once a fighter starts beating ranked contenders they cannot be called a journeyman any more. Once they win the title they don't bellong in the same sentence as the word.

 

Tom "the Bomb" Bethea ( Actually upset Nino Benvenuti in a non title fight
- but could not do it with the title on the line)

Carlos Marks
Roberto Davilia
Jack O'hallaran
Mike Jameson

 

George Chaplin. He arguably beat Greg Page in two fights( though I think Greg edged him) and gave Michael Dokes fits.He looked good in a round against Gerry Cooney before being stopped and went the distance with Gerrie Coetzee.