Gladio kann sie gerne so nennen, wenn er mag, aber das macht es nicht richtige
Diese Antwort aus einem Forum trifft es auf den Punkt. Gladio ist nicht der einzige der den Begriff Journeyman verwedet wie er es tut.
“Journeyman boxer” is most often used broadly to refer to any of the following:
-professional boxers who are good enough to defend themselves and make a reasonable effort but are not likely to beat the champion or top 10 contenders;
-the professional “opponent“, someone at least credible looking who knows his way around the ring. These guys are used to keep a superior fighter busy and in the public eye. They are also used to pad the record of a promising prospect and with insignificant wins. This type can be expected to at least appear to go out and try hard and eventually fall down when it becomes pointless. See Bruce the Mouse Strauss. I mean, definitely see Bruce the Mouse Strauss! One of David Letterman‘s best interviews many many years ago… Easy to find on YouTube.
-some journeymen have great chins and pride, and are hard enough to knock out, and just skilled enough, so that they are often the first to make a highly touted prospect go the distance. This type of journeyman is sometimes used by a manager to give the hot shot a necessary challenge, one which he might not pass, or best case scenario shows the boxing world interviewing public that the star isn’t a shooting star… We knew he could knock out lower tier fighters. Now we know he can fight consistently over the distance, show his skills, conditioning, smarts.
Ross Puritty was a naturally talented heavyweight who didn’t usually have the training or management to give himself the best opportunities. He was a working man who didn’t always have the luxury of time to get into top 10 shape. He could fight a little, and on some nights he was quite good. He also had a chin of pure titanium.
Long before Corrie Sanders bum rushed Wladimir Klitschko and forced him to either retire early or go back to the drawing board and design a new safety-at-all-costs mod, Ross Puritty took a few thousand of the best shots Wladimir could land. The future champion completely gassed out and possibly freaked out at the unthinkable reality of an opponent who could take his best shots, took a couple of shots and collapsed, hyper-ventilating, only to be rescued by his corner.
Valuable intel. A substantial part of the next couple of decades of heavyweight boxing was born on that night, when we and the Klitschko team learned what they would have to do if Wlad was to continue as a professional boxer, much less a champion. Opponent, trial horse… Journeyman? Sometimes called a gate keeper. A truth machine. How many fights and careers could you think of in which the deciding factor was the ability of the less impressive looking guy to take it and keep coming.? Folks who practically make a religion out of saying Rocky Marciano sucked are the ones who can’t accept that looking slick is meaningless, that the size of the fight in the dog will usually be more important than the size of the dog… and that ugly punches from short guys can break u into little pieces
Unfortunately, the word journeyman is sometimes used so broadly that it also refers to that derogatory term “bum“, or “tomato can“ (hit it and watch the red juice start flowing. Unless a fighter is a total fraud, which means that the managers and promoters are also frauds, that is not a term I approve of, nor should anyone who loves the sport.
But in truth, the word journeyman dates back hundreds of years to the trade guilds and earlier. A journeyman was a respected professional, someone who might not be a master craftsman or artiste, but he could be counted on to do a solid days’s skilled labor, someone who would take a journey, or “day trip“ to do work for which he had a good reputation. The word can connote a minimally skilled day laborer, a skilled craftsman who is not quite a master yet, but is no longer an apprentice either, or a professional of any level of skill he doesn’t run his own shop yet but he can be trusted to go out and deliver a good days work without making his boss look bad.
Boxing’s true journeymen are the good, honest professionals who sometimes win the big fight, but more often are known for putting up a skilled and smart or just good enough effort against some rising star or champion who was just a little too special to be beaten. A good trustworthy professional.
