BoxRec

What do you think guys? Did Sergio deserve to be Hall of Fame member?
- beating Chavez jr. in fashion
- very good first fight with Paul Williams, KOing him in second fight
- defeating Kelly Pavlik
- multiple defenses of world title, including solid victories over Barker, Macklin and Murray (close), robbery against Cintron

I've been a fan since the 1st PW fight, and have watched all of his bouts during this time. To me, just not enough talent on his record to clearly make him HOF material. However, boxing has put some more questionable guys in the hall, so you never know.

Given how he struggled with Martin Murray and got badly beat by Cotto -- regardless of how healthy he was or not -- really hurts his legacy. Even if he'd not taken the Cotto fight and retired his HOF creds would still be questionable. Again, I'm a fan and too bad he excelled too late in life. His journey was similar to Winky Wright, fighting overseas, etc. Obviously WW is HOF material, IMHO, and Sergio is not. Look at the list of opponents & you'll see my point.

If Barry McGuigan can get in, so should Martinez.

But in my opinion, if they were really being more selective and only let in undisputed champions who reigned for a length of time, I'd say no.

His promoter admitted in a round about way that they avoided GGG. A true undisputed champion can't get in my HOF if he is missing the best challenger to his title on his resume, especially if he could have fought him but chose not to.

He started his run too late, the early part of his career is pretty weak.
I'm a fan of his but it's a no for me

Is that even a question? Sergio will be a first ballot HOF'er, not even a question. Forget about the fact that Boxing's HOF is hardly the elite class that it is in the major sports, everyone gets in it. Sergio held the lineal Middleweight Championship, second only to the Heavyweight Title in treasured belts, for 4 years. He brought his own style of boxing to the world and it was fantastic to watch.

First ballot, not a shadow of a doubt.

He's a borderline guy, but he'll probably get in given the current standards.

caldo2025 wrote:Is that even a question? Sergio will be a first ballot HOF'er, not even a question. Forget about the fact that Boxing's HOF is hardly the elite class that it is in the major sports, everyone gets in it. Sergio held the lineal Middleweight Championship, second only to the Heavyweight Title in treasured belts, for 4 years. He brought his own style of boxing to the world and it was fantastic to watch.

First ballot, not a shadow of a doubt.

I think he will make the HOF but not a first a guaranteed first ballot.

He'll probably get in. But, not a first ballot guy. Were any of his wins against p4p guys? I forget if Paul was a top ten guy at that point. He has a couple good wins over good competition, and some iffy wins against decent guys. Not sure he qualifies as HOF material. But, like I said, he'll probably end up getting in.

Impractical Poster wrote:He'll probably get in. But, not a first ballot guy. Were any of his wins against p4p guys? I forget if Paul was a top ten guy at that point. He has a couple good wins over good competition, and some iffy wins against decent guys. Not sure he qualifies as HOF material. But, like I said, he'll probably end up getting in.

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tiny_acres wrote:

Impractical Poster wrote:He'll probably get in. But, not a first ballot guy. Were any of his wins against p4p guys? I forget if Paul was a top ten guy at that point. He has a couple good wins over good competition, and some iffy wins against decent guys. Not sure he qualifies as HOF material. But, like I said, he'll probably end up getting in.

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Appreciate it, good sir. DD

Yes

The bar is so low nothing surprises me with the HOF. And not saying that in a "he definitely doesn't deserve to be there sorta way" as I'd agree with many peoples take in that he's a borderline guy with his respectable 160 run.

If Sergio doesn't get in on the first ballot he's not getting in at all.
Sergio will not be a first ballot hall of famer.

Uh yea......wins over Pavlik and Paul Williams along with solid title defenses. Not an AT but HoF...he'll if Kostya can get in first ballot with 1 legit win to his name... (judah). Pavlik and Williams r better than the 2 dudes Kostya lost to.

The thing is if Martinez can't get in with his record, practically no current fighters outside Hopkins/Floyd/Pac would. But with Gatti and McGuigan in? . . yeah he should make it.

hurricanemitch14 wrote:Uh yea......wins over Pavlik and Paul Williams along with solid title defenses. Not an AT but HoF...he'll if Kostya can get in first ballot with 1 legit win to his name... (judah). Pavlik and Williams r better than the 2 dudes Kostya lost to.

Some of his defenses were not solid. And as much as I love Williams, saying he and Pavlik were better than Hatton is very debatable. I'd say they were closer to being on par with each other, with giving Hatton a strong edge. At 140, Hatton looked solid against everyone. It was when he went up to 147 that he showed a lot of vulnerability. Manny was the only man to trouble Ricky at 140. Martinez struggled with quite a few fighters during his reign at 160.