Journeymen that put it together

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Who are some journeymen that late in their career somehow managed to start putting things together to win a belt or make a strong run?
 
Who are some journeymen that late in their career somehow managed to start putting things together to win a belt or make a strong run?

Tends to be hard.
Goes to show how terrible (fixed) judging is in boxing.
A journeyman is brought in to lose many times.

go through a guy like Zack Page's career and there's many fights that he won that they would never give him on the cards. His fight with UKs Tom Dallas is a good example of that.
Or when he fought 7 foot tall prospect, Marat Jumanaliev,... he clearly won but he lost it on the cards (Marat looked so bad that that was his last pro boxing match).


If guys like Page, Demetrice King, Darnell Boone could have afforded a good trainer and trained full time who knows how good they could have been.
 
Tends to be hard.
Goes to show how terrible (fixed) judging is in boxing.
A journeyman is brought in to lose many times.

go through a guy like Zack Page's career and there's many fights that he won that they would never give him on the cards. His fight with UKs Tom Dallas is a good example of that.
Or when he fought 7 foot tall prospect, Marat Jumanaliev,... he clearly won but he lost it on the cards (Marat looked so bad that that was his last pro boxing match).


If guys like Page, Demetrice King, Darnell Boone could have afforded a good trainer and trained full time who knows how good they could have been.
Same with Augustus, imo. I think if he cared more about training longer and fighting for checks less often he could've been a really good fighter. Much like Boone.
 
Oh how about Ray Beltran? I think he's a good candidate for this thread. Also K9 Bundrage.

edit: I like these types of threads, so I'll keep updating with possible options.

Nate Campbell
 
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I was stunned that Bundrage ever won a fight. He always looked so wooden and rigid in the ring.
 
You could make a strong case Sergio Martinez was a journeyman for a large part of his career, though he didn't have quite the losses necessary to be full on "journeyman status." Salido was definitely a journeyman who upset two very well regarded fighters in JuanMa and Loma.
 
Same with Augustus, imo. I think if he cared more about training longer and fighting for checks less often he could've been a really good fighter. Much like Boone.
I think Augustus was trying a bit harder there '04-'08 but the judges still found it easier to give the prospects the wins instead of him.
 
Srisaket was a journeyman for a while too.

Sonny boy Jaro as well, but he really just got Pong on the slide.
 
Glen Johnson probably fits the bill to a point.
 
John Ruiz won a world title and had an all-around solid career.
Off the top of my head I'm going to say he had the best pro career of any Hispanic heavyweight of the last 25 years.
 
true, crazy to think he lost to Sven Ottke

There is a pretty good argument that he deserved to beat Ottke, but the fact that the fight was as competitive as it was really shows how much he improved.
 
There is a pretty good argument that he deserved to beat Ottke, but the fact that the fight was as competitive as it was really shows how much he improved.
yeah it was pretty close. I don't thinking giving the nod to ottke was ridiculous. Just like, how did you go from beating a mediocre Euro champ to being one of the top rated fighters P4P (granted, it was inflated on the reputations of a shot RJJ and a good but not great Tarver).
 
yeah it was pretty close. I don't thinking giving the nod to ottke was ridiculous. Just like, how did you go from beating a mediocre Euro champ to being one of the top rated fighters P4P (granted, it was inflated on the reputations of a shot RJJ and a good but not great Tarver).

Let's not forget his ultimate triumph:

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I think Augustus was trying a bit harder there '04-'08 but the judges still found it easier to give the prospects the wins instead of him.
yeah he's had a tough go of it, both in and out of the ring. Still can't believe he survived a bullet to the head and iirc he was even on life support then only a guy like him came back from that shit and woke up! He's quite a character, should write a book with all the places he's been and shit he's seen/been through.
 
I'll throw out Gatti. Won the WBC 140lb title and defended it twice (until Floyd beat him half to death for it).
 
Cuevas was basically fed to Espada as a first opponent in a Mexican tour before he knocked him out in 2, defended his belt 11 times, then went 8-9 in his last 17 fights.
 
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