Tomato cans that fought the most big names

NO MENTION OF PURRITY?? Purrity has fought most of the top HWs from the late 90s-modern era. And ofcourse grabbed a certain Wlad Klitchkos ZERO and Wlad didnt tire as some will tell you he got battered. Purity isnt a tomato can though hes a respectable journeyman who didnt get ko'd like a can would

 

How about Willi Besmanoff?

 

Joe Mesi -- he's a "tomato can".
Or atleast he is now.
He used to fight good fighters --- but not any more.
He has been fighting tomato cans and has turned into one.

 

I think we've seen some pretty good answers on this thread, but without offending anybody, we should probably talk about the term tomato can for a minute.

The term tomato can, typically refers to fighters who lose most of their bouts, and has little or no chance of beating anyone who is worth anything. These guys usually have records of like 3-13, 20-31, 14-19, etc. They mostly show up as fill in guys at the last minute, or are build up fighters for up and coming prospects. Men like Rick Keller, Dave Jaco, and a few others are pretty much tomato cans.

Some folks here have mentioned guys like Jesse Ferguson, Jose Ribalta and Ross Purity. While these men were certainly not world beaters, they at least won most of their fights, and have a number of losses to good fighters, some of which went the distance in competitive fights. WHat's more, the above mentioned fighters have also beaten some good men, and at one point may even have been ranked. Don't forget that Jesse Ferguson began his career 13-0, and defeated men like Buster Douglas, Ray Mercer, George Chaplin, and a few others. Jose Ribalta retired with a trial hoarse's record of 39-17-1-28, and again, mainly lost to good fighters, many of which came past his prime. Ross Purity knocked out 27 of his 31 victoms. Of his 20 losses, only 3 of them came via TKO, and most of his defeats overall came against undefeated fighters, or ones who had little more than a single loss. He also beat the **** out of Wladimir Klitscko, and was arguably robbed against Tommy Morrison.

Once again, these men were not top rank contenders, but to call them tomato cans is going a bit too far in the other direction in my opinion. A more appropriate term would probably be journeyman, trial hoarses, and at times even fringe contenders.

My $0.02

 

George SCRAPIRON JOHNSON, LEVI BILLUPS, LEVI FORTE, JACK OHALLORAN, MARION WILSON,BIG FOOT MARTIN,

 

Well, if we're going to aim at 'uber jobbers', then...

Marion Wilson has that draw against Mercer (and while I think the draw was fair between Morrison and Puritty, Wilson was definitely hard done by here). Along with points victories over Mike 'The Bounty' Hunter and Corey 'T-Rex' Sanders, he went the distance against several famous names such as Ibeabuchi and Briggs.

Levi Billups beat Bonecrusher Smith, won a split decision against Mike Hunter too, and went the 10-round distance with Lewis. Also lost a tight split decision to Obed Sullivan as well (and nearly went the full 12 in the rematch).

Bigfoot Martin got narrow points victories over Bert Cooper and Tim Witherspoon, and went the distance with a large variety of star names like Wilson did.

 

I'm still sticking with Marcus Rhode as a good shout.

He's currently 33-33-2 with 28 knockouts, but those 33 wins are against the worst collection of inexperienced and inept fighters this side of Don Steele's resume.

Those 33 opponents have a combined record of 81-239-6 (that's an average record of roughly 2-7 per opponent), with 9 of them never having fought before. Take away just 3 of his opponents (Boyd, Johnson and Miller), and that would be down from 81 wins to just 24.

When the highlight of your 'win' column is punching out Lorenzo Boyd in 2 rounds, you haven't got much to boast about. And then Rhode lost to Boyd on points in the rematch!

Bless 'im because he does fulfill a vital role, that of a punching bag to the stars that can always fill in at the 11th hour when you need someone, but his record is inspiringly bad.

And it's not like he even goes the distance or puts up a strong effort against the big names he fights, either. A good fight for him is getting knocked out in the 3rd round rather than in the 1st or 2nd as usual.

And Marcus is fighting on the 23rd, against the 4-4 Steve Lewallen. Can he overcome the odds against this fearsome 0.500 opponent?

Mind you, Marcus would still beat Eric Crumble.

 

Scrap Iron Johnson is a good call,how about Scott Ledoux?Though I would refer to all fighters as journeymen at their lowest level,likewise I don,t like the word bum when it is applied to a fighter,these guys have balls,some more than others sure, but when I see people call the likes of Chuck Wepner a bum ,it makes me a little mad ,he may have been unskilled but he had a ton of heart.They deserve better,imo.

 

there was a british middleweight fought out of liverpool in the sixties and the early part of the seventies called harry scott.based on your criteria he would have to be called a tomato can.record 30-34-6 with 20 knockouts.look at this:
yolande pompey w ko1
laszlo papp L10
rubin carter LTKO9 W10
emile griffiths LRTD 9
nino benvenuti L10
tom bogs L10
bunny sterling W8 L10
chris finnegan L10
sandro mazzinghi L10
kevin finnegan L10
alan minter L10

the minter fight was just about his last in '73 still going the distance even then with future world champions.

 

How about Willie Warren?

 

Willy Wise?

 

Louis Monaco?

 

A tomato can champ with the initials JD fought a lot of tomato can contenders.

 

Robert Evans

 

Would one of those cans have the initials BM?