ATG's and champions make up only a small percentage of boxers, yet understandably, garner all of the attention. But what about the journeymen/trialhorse types? You know, the guy whose name keeps popping up on everyone's records? Got any favourites? To start, I always liked James Tillis. True, at one time he was a contender, but he slowly slid down the pecking order until he was a well-established journeyman.
I would add Roy Williams, Marty Marshall, Tiger Ted Lowry and maybe Willi Meehan (maybe too good for a journeyman).
I was going to pick Glen Johnson but since he won world titles I don't think he should count. Too me a journeyman is a solid pro that was ranked but never won a world title. I'm going with Leotis Martin and Micky Ward. Both guys always came to fight and were hell for their opponents win, lose or draw.
I would have just thought that a journeyman is a boxer who was never ranked in The Ring Magazine's Annual Ratings as a contender and never fought for a world championship title (otherwise Axel Schulz would also be a journeyman). But of course there is no clear definition and that is to a certain extent a matter of personal interpretation.
Bob Satterfield. A man who’s top wins put many champions to shame has some awful losses. He was highly ranked at some point but not sure of the exact definition we are using for journeymen
Axel very easily could have been heavyweight champ on two separate occasions. I thought he beat Foreman and was a whisker from beating Moorer. I need to rewatch and re score the Moorer fight. I know a few people that thought he won that night.
During the 60s and 70s we had a couple of guys like George 'Scrapiron' Johnson, Lou Bailey and Leroy Caldwell whose records were dotted with the usual suspects. They were brought in to give the top gun a win and to give an honest effort. And generally, as in the case of Johnson and Bailey, it was going to go the distance. I also liked Memphis Al Jones because a sure win was always a bit dicey with him. You never knew if he would pull a haymaker out of his hat like he did taking out Boone Kirkman when he was highly rated, or hot prospect Tony Longoria, or making people sweat when he decked Jerry Quarry twice before succumbing. I also heard he gave a very good, but losing effort with Ron Lyle. But at heavyweight I suppose I liked Jesse Ferguson best amongst journeyman. His tag of 'Boogeyman' was apt. He too had a long list of losses to the usual suspects, but every so often he would pull out a win over the likes of Buster Douglas, George Chaplin and the infamous first fight with Ray Mercer. He was also adept at giving hot prospects like Obed Sullivan, Samson Pouhaa and Bobby Harris a spanking. But my favorite of all time, regardless of weight, was Angel Robinson Garcia. A one-time contender who fell in love with the night life in Europe after Cuba closed its doors to the pro game. Garcia was in huge demand the world over because he would come into your backyard, give a good account of himself, rarely beat the hometown favorite and knew enough to protect himself throughout 10 rounds where he would not be prevented from fighting in Spain next week or Italy the week after. Everyone should educate themselves on this fighter. His record is an absolute who's who on boxing.
Smokin Bert and Scrap Iron Johnson were two of my favorites aswell, Bert coulda been champ easily. If only the clasp of addiction was not such a tight vice of his.
Yeah, there is no strict definition of what a journeyman is, but I look at it as a fighter who most often travels to another guy's back yard, or foreign country, to be brought in as an opponent for the local guy, and who is kind of expected to lose. You have to hand it to these guys. In. many ways, they're the lifeblood of the sport. Sometimes brought in at late notice, and expected to lose but put up a game effort. It must be really difficult mentally to have a string of losses, but still get into shape and put forth a good effort the next time out.
