2018 boxing hall of fame class

[pound per pound]

Vitali Klitchko is a bad ass. How much criticism can you throw his way for being around in an era that was so poor? At least little bro caught some contenders like Haye, Fury and AJ before he retired, but lost 2/3.
I think i seen Vitali lose about 3 rounds of boxing in his entire career, 2 of them to the goat.

He was in an era including Lewis, Holyfield and Tyson plus a load of other world champions who weren't as good in the decade around them (Ruiz, Haye, Maskaev, Rahman, Valuev, Ibragimov, Chagaev) plus contenders like Mercer, Tua, Golota. You could stick Moorer in there as well if you like. He fought none of them. His CV is pathetic.

Dirk,

He is 15-2 in WBO, WBC, Ring Magazine title fights many of which were vs. top ten contenders or former champions.

Do you want to see Vitali beat on 'Olyfield and an older Mike Tyson? He was going to meet the washed up Tyson until Danny Williams change the plans. Golota was don king controlled and never beat anyone decent. Vitali vs. an older Ray Mercer or glassy Moorer would be criminal.

Haye pulled out of a chance to meet with Vitali. So did Valuev. As we know, Lennox Lewis did not want the rematch. You are not well informed!

In addition to the above Vitali has a high knock out percentage, was never floored by a punch, and never seem to be behind on any scorecard. Pretty impressive stuff. A superior older fighter too. Who else aside from Foreman had that type of comeback?

The hall of fame voters, the majority of which are USA or UK based elected Vitali on his first ballot, so there was little if any favoritism here. Just accept it. The choices were pretty good. A popular pick would have been Hatton, but it wasn't the right pick this year. Bravo to the voters.

[pound per pound]

Right, his brother faced the best of a weak era. Vitali didn't even do that. The two notable fighters he did fight, beat him. Though Lewis was a good loss.

Or if we used common opponents who defeated or gave his brother a hard time, Vitali won in a much easier fashion. Stopping Purity and Sanders and easily out classing Peter.

If 1996-2012 was a weak time line, this heavyweight division is where? A bit worse overall I think.

[dirk2686]

Vitali Klitchko is a bad ass. How much criticism can you throw his way for being around in an era that was so poor? At least little bro caught some contenders like Haye, Fury and AJ before he retired, but lost 2/3.
I think i seen Vitali lose about 3 rounds of boxing in his entire career, 2 of them to the goat.

He was in an era including Lewis, Holyfield and Tyson plus a load of other world champions who weren't as good in the decade around them (Ruiz, Haye, Maskaev, Rahman, Valuev, Ibragimov, Chagaev) plus contenders like Mercer, Tua, Golota. You could stick Moorer in there as well if you like. He fought none of them. His CV is pathetic.

Dirk,

He is 15-2 in WBO, WBC, Ring Magazine title fights many of which were vs. top ten contenders or former champions.

Do you want to see Vitali beat on 'Olyfield and an older Mike Tyson? He was going to meet the washed up Tyson until Danny Williams change the plans. Golota was don king controlled and never beat anyone decent. Vitali vs. an older Ray Mercer or glassy Moorer would be criminal.

Haye pulled out of a chance to meet with Vitali. So did Valuev. As we know, Lennox Lewis did not want the rematch. You are not well informed!

In addition to the above Vitali has a high knock out percentage, was never floored by a punch, and never seem to be behind on any scorecard. Pretty impressive stuff. A superior older fighter too. Who else aside from Foreman had that type of comeback?

The hall of fame voters, the majority of which are USA or UK based elected Vitali on his first ballot, so there was little if any favoritism here. Just accept it. The choices were pretty good. A popular pick would have been Hatton, but it wasn't the right pick this year. Bravo to the voters.

A load of excuses about why a guy who was a pro for so long didn't beat anyone better than Adamek. Who is his defining fight? Clearly losing against Lewis. His comeback was awful - good fight to return in the shape of Peter but after that, dear me. The vast majority were dismal opponents.

[IKSRTFO]

Vitali is worthy for induction. Wlad had a better opposition, but Vit had also met descent contenders, whom the era could suggest. As the result numbers tell a lot for him. But it's not about only numbers, Vit was a really special boxer. He was far from being technically perfect, but he had a great ability to use his size. Even Lewis-fight, which is a loss, is an another argument for giving Vitali a legend status.

Based on that, Marcos Maidana should gain entry into the Hall of fame. Fits that exact statement you made.

[DrDuke]

Based on that, Marcos Maidana should gain entry into the Hall of fame. Fits that exact statement you made.

Yet the one you'd emphasized wasn't the whole statement.

[ElJefe]

Hatton should have gone in ahead of Vitali. Only lost to the 2 best of his generation in their absolute primes and then had a failed 1 fight comeback. Has several solid wins and the 1 big win over Tszyu. Better than what Vitali achieved IMO.

[dirk2686]

Hatton should have gone in ahead of Vitali. Only lost to the 2 best of his generation in their absolute primes and then had a failed 1 fight comeback. Has several solid wins and the 1 big win over Tszyu. Better than what Vitali achieved IMO.

Agreed.

An open question - does Vitali have the worst 'best win' of anyone in the Hall of Fame?

[Andrew]

Benn was on the ballot as well.

The McCllelan win alone is better than anything on Vitalis resume. Though being British I'm assuming we view Benn in much higher regard than stateside.

[jamamb]

lots of guys deserve it more than vitali. there isnt room to induct even close to all of them.

[jujigatame]

I wouldn't have put Vitali in there but he's no less deserving than Riddick Bowe. The Holyfield trilogy is the entirety of Bowe's resume.

Hell, Ingemar Johansson is in there too.

[Perseus]

I think Hatton will get be elected into the HOF in the next year or two.
They really need to elect 5 per year instead of just 3.

As for V. Klit people aren't looking close enough at his resume and also simply refusing to acknowledge the unique situation of the era.
Name another time when it was perfectly acceptable for the two universally recognized best heavyweights to declare they would never fight one another.

What you do in sports(any sport) isn't a big deal until it has been well documented many others have been unable to accomplish the same.
Boxing has been here for a little bit so it should be easy to recognize rare situations.

So how many boxers have left the sport due to injury came back four years later in their late-30's and won a world title in their first fight?
Show me a long list of boxers who have done that.
Retired boxers coming back in their late 30's always results in more world title wins and multiple defenses right?
How many people have held major title belts(applicable to the era) into their 40's?
The fact that he was never dropped or was trailing on any scorecard at the conclusion of any fight is also significant.
If he never comes back from the injury, he's just the older brother of Wlad and we're not talking about him now, the successful comeback and dominance of said comeback pushed him into the hall.

You can can bash the names on his resume all you want..................and you do have merit.........................but in the end there have been literally thousands of boxers who spent their career facing the same level of competition as Vitali and had nothing close to the same results/achievements.