What fighters do we hold a revisionist perception of?

Stanley Ketchel.

 

Two fighters who were very successful at rewriting history in their favor, were Jim Corbett and Gene Tunney.

Their careers have consequently been subject to some revisions, which have probably gone too far in both cases.

 

And Les Darcy. He was 21 when he died. How could he have created a meaningful legacy?

 

Lived beyond 21 perhaps?

 

A lot of the unfilmed all time great fighters have a tinge of revisionism to them, like Corbett, Sullivan, Jeffries and Fitzsimmons for example. We don’t know what’s legit or not about their styles, so due to being anomalies we pretty much guess

 

Jersey Joe Walcott being anything more than an over-achieving journeyman.

 

Gerald McCellean has been turned into one of the most destructive punchers in Middleweight history.
Yet his best named opponents prior to Benn ( Mugabi and Jackson) had been Koed before he did it and both men were past prime.
McCellean landed home run punch after home run punch on Nigel Benn for 10 rds, Benn , not known for having a great chin had been koed prior to the McCellean fight by boxers not seen as big punchers, and yet it was he who ended up getting koed and severely injured.
Before those three fighters his opponents were a who's who of nobody's.
I hated seeing Mccellean get hurt, because I saw the fight live.
And it's tragic what happened to him.
But if he didn't get seriously hurt, most would know he was just a "guy". After the Benn fight.
He wasn't the most destructive puncher at Middleweight in his own era. Much less others.
Hell Mugabi and Jackson stopped fresher and better opposition on their way up to a title shot than he did.
He was a case of careful matchmaking at its best. Even the Benn fight was seen as a perfect match up for him, and he was expected to blow Benn out in one or two rds.
Unfortunately it was a miscalculation for him and his management.

 

How do you define journeyman?

 

He was seen as a journeyman by contemporary observers of the scene. Over the past 20+ years he has become some sort of magician employing techniques lost to the mists of time.


San Francisco Chronicle, 11/30/47
"As a journeyman fighter (Walcott) who wants to stay in the business, he has learned to protect himself, even at the cost of displeasing the crowd."

Washington Evening Star, 12/6/47
"Joe Louis... today is wearing a tarnished crown which belongs on the fuzzy semibald head of Jersey Joe Walcott, 34-year old journeyman heavyweight and ebony-hued father of six children."

Plain Dealer 6/23/48
"(Walcott) only lately come to be recognized as a fair journeyman operator after 17 years of ring warfare."

Washington Evening Star 12/8/49
"Walcott doesn't have youth. He's older than Louis. Jersey Joe lacks the vicious, killing instinct which lifted Dempsey to the peak of popularity... He is, in short, a plodding journeyman heavyweight who had his night."

Burton Hawkins, Buffalo News, 7/30/48
(Walcott) He's a moderately talented, but extremely cautious- a 34-year old journeyman heavyweight who finds himself squarely in the championship picture strictly due to the mediocrity of his competition."

Milwaukee Journal, 6/22/48
"For Walcott is strictly a second rater, a journeyman boxer working at a trade."

Richmond Times Dispatch, 3/5/50
"The heavyweights are such a poor lot that a journeyman fighter (Walcott), who once quit the ring but came back to fight regularly, can make the No. 7 heavyweight look like a novice amateur scrapper."

Oregon Journal, 7/20/51
"His is a story- which for sheer drama- rivals that of another old man, Jim Braddock. The both hail from New Jersey and each was a journeyman for years without ever getting past first base in their race for fame and fortune."

Commercial Appeal, Memphis, 6/5/52
"Though he's an effective journeyman artilleryist, Walcott's style places heavy demands upon his legs as he jibs about in the manner of barefooted man on a sun-blasted tin roof."

 

I don’t stock much into newspaper opinions as many great fighters have said much kinder things of Arnold Cream and they know the game much, much better than the writers. You personally see him as a journeyman?

 

Back in his day, writers followed the boxing beat. They weren't crossovers or insta celebrities commenting. They were boxing writers who visited camps, talked with trainers and promoters daily, saw fights 3 and 4 times a week. It was a different world.

Walcott lost every 3.2 times he stepped into a boxing ring. But he kept at it to make a paycheck and feed his kids. He was the definition of a journeyman.

 

Respectfully It doesn’t change what great boxers have said. How do you define a journeyman?

 

Larry Holmes by far.

 

Greb, Holmes and Charles are fighters that are.much more highly thought of today than during their time. Sesmus also makes a.good case for including Walcott into that company.

Dempsey and Ketchell fall into the opposite category, I'd say.