His professional career is filled with matches with champions and contenders and his name is linked with numerous boxing stars of the 1980s and 1990s.
To supplement his meager boxing earnings, Jesse Ferguson was working as a construction worker and a security guard.
He made a debut with a 4-round knockout of Richard Scott, and followed it up in the semi-finals with a 10-round points win where he outpunched James "Buster" Douglas, a fight that would become more significant over the years, as Douglas went on to upset Mike Tyson in 1990 and win the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.
He was matched up with Carl "The Truth" Williams, who was himself coming off a disputed 15-round points loss to Larry Holmes.
Ferguson was employed as a sparring partner for Mike Tyson, Razor Ruddock, Lennox Lewis, and Michael Moorer.
By the time he fought Oliver McCall in 1991, he had only had one fight in three years, a 6-round kayo of Terry Armstrong in 1990.
Ferguson dropped decisions to two ex-world champions, Michael "Dynamite" Dokes and Tony "TNT" Tubbs, but in 1993 would see a turnaround of his fortunes.
On February 6, 1993, Ferguson fought on the untelevised undercard of an HBO event at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Ferguson, however, defied the odds and defeated an underprepared Mercer by a unanimous decision to earn his shot against Bowe, who knocked out Dokes in the first round.
[2] The world championship fight with Bowe was signed for May 22, 1993, and was staged at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC.
Because the IBF did not consider Ferguson to be a legitimate contender, they would not sanction the defense for Bowe and only the WBA and lineal championships were on the line.
In 1996 he was hired as chief sparring partner for champion Mike Tyson in the lead-up to his fight with Bruce Seldon.
This led to another big fight on HBO in 1998, where a now 40-year-old Ferguson took on young and undefeated powerful punching contender Hasim Rahman for the USBA belt.
In 1999 Jimmy Thunder, citing an injury, dropped out of a fight with Polish contender Andrew Golota.
Ferguson was tapped as Thunder's replacement and accepted the bout on short notice; he lost the fight by decision.