Tomato Can (sports idiom)

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This article is about Tomato Can as a sports idiom. For tomatoes that have generally been peeled and placed in a can, see Canned tomatoes.

In the context of American boxing or mixed martial arts, a tomato can is a sports idiom for a boxer with poor or diminished skills who may be considered an easy opponent to defeat, or a "guaranteed win." Fights with Tomato cans can be arranged to inflate the win total of a professional fighter.

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[edit] Characteristics

A tomato can is usually a fighter with a poor record, whose skills are substandard or who lacks toughness or has a "glass chin." Sometimes a formerly successful boxer who is past his prime and who has seen his skills diminish is considered a tomato can if he can no longer compete at a high level. Such an individual is an attractive opponent if his name still carries prestige but his diminished skills make him an easy conquest.

Most fighters who are considered tomato cans are heavyweights, because at lower weight classes one must maintain a certain level of fitness in order to make weight, whereas a heavyweight who once fought at a trim 205 pounds could conceivably gain 150 pounds and still fight in the same division.

One characteristic which may account for the use of the "tomato can" metaphor for a bad boxer is the tendency to leak red fluid (tomato juice/blood) when battered.

[edit] Surprises and upsets

It must be noted that victory over a tomato can is not a certainty. Journeyman boxers generally regarded as tomato cans have been known to provide surprising challenges to champions and in several instances, cause shocking upsets against supposedly superior opponents.

On March 24, 1975, Muhammad Ali faced Chuck Wepner, a lightly regarded but popular boxer from New Jersey. A former nightclub bouncer, Wepner was nicknamed the "The Bayonne Bleeder" and was considered a washed-up contender with a poor record. Don King selected Wepner as a tomato can to provide an easy victory for Ali after his famous win over George Foreman.[1] In a surprising turn of events, Wepner scored a disputed knockdown in the ninth round, survived 19 seconds short of the distance, before losing to a TKO in the 15th round.[2] Wepner's bout with Ali provided the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone's movie Rocky.[3]


[edit] Other notable examples

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ CHUCK WEPNER, New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame, 1982-10-29, Retrieved on 2007-03-31.
  2. ^ Tomato Cans: MUHAMMAD ALI vs. CHUCK WEPNER, CNN / SI, Retrieved on 2007-03-31.
  3. ^ CHUCK WEPNER, THE REAL ROCKY, Planetrapture.com, Retrieved on 2007-03-31.
  4. ^ CNN/SI - Tomato Cans
  5. ^ CNN/SI - Tomato Cans
  6. ^ CNN/SI - Tomato Cans
  7. ^ CNN/SI - Tomato Cans
  8. ^ Sandomir, Richard (1995), "TV SPORTS; Who Must Tyson Face Next? A Finer Brand of Tomato Can", The New York Times, Sports Desk, Late Edition - Final, Section B, Page 8, Column 1, 1995-08-22. Abstract: "If you paid $45.95 for Saturday's Mike Tyson fight, and you felt ripped off, even astonished by its brevity, you must have ignored all we knew about how undeserving a challenger Peter McNeeley was. He was a hurricane without an eye. Other tomato cans are insulted when stacked on ..."

[edit] External links

  • Tomato Cans - A CNN/SI gallery of Tomato Cans in modern heavyweight pro-boxing history.