CAN Someone Define "CAN" For Me, as It's Used to Describe MMA Fighters?

Leonard Haid

Leonard Haid

Minimalist Living the Illusory Dream
@red
Joined
Nov 17, 2016
Messages
9,117
Reaction score
4,866
I sort of get the idea, but I'd like to read people's definitions.
 
Like a pro wrestling jobber. Someone you're supposed to beat, not necessarily because of the stylistic match up but because the "can" is just outmatched. A can's purpose is usually to make someone else look good. They're fodder for padding records.

Shannon Ritch could be the can of all cans in MMA. He'll go down without much of a fight, sometimes literally, since he's been in a few suspect fights. Modern day Bob Sapp is also a can. Sapp is a pretty good can, or at least he was, because at one point and time he wasn't a terrible fighter. Having a win over him used to mean something, so he had good value as a can for a while after his downfall.

The term gets misused a lot because it's relative. Bob Sapp wouldn't be a can against Shannon Ritch, for example.
 
Bo Cantrell. You invent the flying tap and you put yourself as citation #1 in the dictionary.
 
Transmorphers said:
Like a pro wrestling jobber. Someone you're supposed to beat, not necessarily because of the stylistic match up but because the "can" is just outmatched. A can's purpose is usually to make someone else look good. They're fodder for padding records.

Shannon Ritch could be the can of all cans in MMA. He'll go down without much of a fight, sometimes literally, since he's been in a few suspect fights. Modern day Bob Sapp is also a can. Sapp is a pretty good can, or at least he was, because at one point and time he wasn't a terrible fighter. Having a win over him used to mean something, so he had good value as a can for a while after his downfall.

The term gets misused a lot because it's relative. Bob Sapp wouldn't be a can against Shannon Ritch, for example.
Click to expand...
How about Can vs Bum?
Is there a difference?
 
I think in boxing they used to call people tomato cans because I guess they got punched and bled a lot.
 
Leonard Haid said:
I sort of get the idea, but I'd like to read people's definitions.
Click to expand...
OK guys, Wiki has the answer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato_can_(sports_idiom)

In boxing, kickboxing or mixed martial arts, "tomato can" or simply "tomato" or "can" is an idiom for a fighter with poor or diminished skills (at least when compared with the opponent they are placed against) 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. The phrase originates in the childhood pastime of kicking a can down the street—a boxer is advancing his career with minimal effort by defeating a "tomato can" and notching a win. "Tomato" refers to blood: "knock a tomato can over, and red stuff spills out."

(...)

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. When referring to a distinguished fighter, opponents with passable careers who simply aren't at the same level can also be considered "tomato cans". 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 "tomato juice" (i.e., blood) when battered.

"Tomato cans" are similar to jobbers in professional wrestling in that they serve to enhance the stature of someone the promotion uses to draw a crowd.
 
According to Sherdog, it is anyone who a) lost his/her last fight, b) didn't win their last fight by brutal KO or 3) isn't Connor McGregor.
 
Yeah, the internet MMA usage, like most internet definitions of jargon, isn't quite in line with the original meaning.

These days I'm kind of surprised fighters who lose aren't called "cucks".
 
Organic Damage said:
Yeah, the internet MMA usage, like most internet definitions of jargon, isn't quite in line with the original meaning.

These days I'm kind of surprised fighters who lose aren't called "cucks".
Click to expand...
"Cuck" is another word I don't have a real grasp of. I only started seeing it when I started hanging out on Sherdog.
 
In terms of how sherdog posters use the term basically any top 10 fighter in the world how loses a single fight typcially becomes a Can.
 
It's a term coined by O'bama, who tried to empower young, up'n'coming fighters. To make them believe that they could (or they "cans", sequence of time, subject-verb agreement, and shit, you know).

YesWeCan.jpg
 
By Sherdog standards, anyone that isn't currently top 5 in the world at their weight.
 
MikeMcMann said:
In terms of how sherdog posters use the term basically any top 10 fighter in the world how loses a single fight typcially becomes a Can.
Click to expand...
Even better - someone with an unblemished 24-0 record who doesn't make weight is also a can and doesn't deserve the UFC.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,239,142
Messages
55,607,242
Members
174,851
Latest member
kwaszak

Share this page

Back
Top