In boxing, a journeyman is a fighter who has adequate skill but is not of the caliber of a contender or gatekeeper. Outside of boxing, a "journeyman" is a trader or crafter who has completed an apprenticeship, but is not at the level of a master craftsman. Hence, when applied to boxing, a "journeyman boxer" implies a fighter who is no longer a novice, and has the sufficient degree of boxing skill that may be expected from a professional, but who does not have the mastery possessed by the contenders.

Journeymen will often serve as opponents for young up and coming prospects and will often step in at late notice should a fight fall through. Journeymen are said to have little or no expectation of winning fights against contenders or gatekeepers, but this does not preclude them from having a winning record against less-skilled fighters.

In testimony to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, DeGuardia states that becoming a journeyman is the fate of many professional boxers, and that a boxer will realize that he has become a journeyman "after about 10 years" in the profession. Journeymen boxers float "from promoter to promoter, or manager to manager, hoping to get placed as opponents in fights" by promoters, and making very little money. They will "fight all the time, anywhere, in order to make enough money to get by". In earlier testimony to the committee, it had been reported that some journeymen boxers regard themselves as existing in the sport solely as "a body for better men to beat on".

A journeyman is someone who has completed an apprenticeship and is fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman has to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master.

The word journeyman comes from the French word journee, which means the period of one day. The title refers to the journeyman's right to charge a fee for each day's work. Journeymen would normally be employed by a master craftsman, but would live apart and might have a family of their own. A journeyman could not employ others. In contrast, an apprentice would be bound to a master, usually for a fixed term of seven years, and lived with the master as a member of the household, receiving most or all compensation in the form of food and lodging.

In parts of Europe, as in later medieval Germany, spending time as a wandering journeyman (Wandergeselle), moving from one town to another to gain experience of different workshops, was an important part of the training of an aspirant master. Carpenters in Germany have retained the tradition of traveling journeymen even today, although only a few still practice it. In France, wandering journeymen were known as compagnons.

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people engage in a contest using only their fists. There are two forms of boxing: amateur and professional. Amateur boxing is an Olympic and Commonwealth sport and is a common fixture in most of the major international games - it also has its own World Championships. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds. The result is decided when an opponent is deemed incapable to continue match by a referee or if an opponent is disqualified for breaking a rule, resigning by throwing in a towel, or by judges' scorecards at the end of the bout.

The birth hour of boxing as a sport may be its acceptance by the ancient Greeks as an Olympic game as early as 688 BC. Modern boxing evolved in Great Britain and United States. In 2004, ESPN ranked boxing as the most difficult sport in the world.

Fist fighting depicted in Sumerian relief carvings from the 3rd millennium BC, while an ancient Egyptian relief from the 2nd millennium BC depicts both fist-fighters and spectators. Both depictions show bare-fisted contests. Other depictions can be seen in Assyrian, Babylonian and Hittite art. The earliest evidence for fist fighting with any kind of gloves can be found on Minoan Crete (c. 1500–900 BC), and on Sardinia, if we consider the boxing statues of Prama mountains (c. 2000–1000 BC).

Brad Rone (September 30, 1968 - July 18, 2003) was a journeyman boxer from Cincinnati, Ohio. Rone was not an accomplished boxer: He lost 26 professional bouts in a row before dying. (A "journeyman" in boxing parlance is someone hired, often on short notice, to fight against up and coming prospects or championship contenders. Very often, these journeymen have negative win-loss records.)

Rone died after a fight with Billy Zumbrun, a boxer who had beaten Rone before, and who, ironically, had become friends with Rone after their first fight. Rone had been banned from fighting in Nevada for three years. Although he lived in Las Vegas, commissioner Marc Ratner, considered one of the most serious and respected figures in boxing, felt Rone was in risk of getting injured every time he boxed, so he denied the Ohio native a license in 2000. Rone then took to the road to find fights, going as far as Germany and Denmark.

Despite being banned from Nevada, he fought several times in California, as well as in Idaho and Texas. His fights with Zumbrun were in Utah. Usually, when a boxer is banned from fighting in one state of the United States, the suspension carries over to the other states, but in Rone's case, he still managed to get fights on U.S. soil.

James Nathanial Toney (born August 24, 1968) is an American professional boxer who has held world titles in the middleweight, super middleweight, and cruiserweight divisions. He grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and graduated from Huron High School. Toney currently fights in the heavyweight division in boxing and also now competes in mixed martial arts.

Toney's amateur boxing record is 33 fights, 31 wins and 2 losses with 29 KOs. He won the 1983 and 1984 West Michigan Division Junior Title (156 lb), 1987 Novice Golden Gloves in Manchester (156 lb), 1987 Michigan Silver Gloves (156 lb) and 1988 Ohio State Fair (156 lb)

Toney had his first professional fight on October 26, 1988, beating Stephen Lee by a technical knockout in the second round. He was scouted and trained by Gregory Owens as a teenager, who also was his trainer through the mid-nineties. His moniker of "Lights Out" was also given by either Gregory or his son.

On March 10, 1989, his manager Johnny "Ace" Smith was killed outside of the Page One Bar in Detroit. Jackie Kallen then became his manager. He won the Michigan Middleweight title in 1990, knocking out Philip Morefield in the 1st round.