BoxRec

I thought I’d create a thread to discuss the fighters being voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHoF) during 2019.

There are 32 candidates on this year's ballot for “modern fighters” (whose last fight came no earlier than 1989), where it has also been at least five years since their last contest.

Electors can vote for up to five fighters and the top three who receives the most votes can make plans for induction during 2019.

Here's a list of the fighters on the IBHoF ballot:

• Chris Eubank Sr.
• Chris John
• Darius Michalczewski
• Donald Curry
• Fernando Vargas
• Genaro Hernandez
• Gianfranco Rosi
• Gilberto Roman
• Henry Maske
• Ivan "Iron Boy" Calderon
• James "Buddy" McGirt
• Julian Jackson
• Leo Gamez
• Meldrick Taylor
• Michael Moorer
• Miguel "Happy" Lora
• Mikkel Kessler
• Nigel Benn
• Orzubek "Gussie" Nazarov
• Paulie Ayala
• Rafael Marquez
• Ratanapol Sor Vorapin
• Ricky Hatton
• Rocky Lockridge
• Samuel Serrano
• Santos Laciar
• Sot Chitalada
• Sung-Kil Moon
• Sven Ottke
• Vinny Pazienza
• Wilfredo Vazquez Sr.
• Yuri Arbachakov

Note: This year's new ballot entries are highlighted in bold red text.

Full members of the Boxing Writers Association of America and a panel of international boxing historians have an Oct. 31 deadline to return their ballots to the Hall of Fame, which will announce the results in December.

Thoughts?

When I think, whom I would have inducted, I have a line with two tiers, the rest is harder to figure out for me.

The 1st tier: Michael Moorer, Mikkel Kessler, Donald Curry, Julian Jackson, Ricky Hatton.

The 2nd tier: Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank Sr., Yuri Arbachakov, Darius Michalczewski, Fernando Vargas.

Hatton, Marquez, Calderon are locks

Casamayor and Corrales not worth of a spot on the ballot but kessler is?

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑29 Oct 2018, 13:58Casamayor and Corrales not worth of a spot on the ballot but kessler is?

Mikkel Kessler was a three-time world super-middleweight champion, competed in fifteen world championship bouts and only ever suffered losses against dead-cert first-ballot Hall-of-Famers, such as: Joe Calzaghe; Andre Ward; and Carl Froch. He also defeated several world champions and one Hall-of-Famer, as well spending an entire decade constantly competing in world championship bouts.

Are you seriously suggesting that Diego Corrales and Joel Casamayor both possess resumes that are superior to Mikkel Kessler’s?

Don’t get me wrong, Corrales and Casamayor both had really good careers, but they’re almost certainly far less accomplished than Mikkel Kessler. In fact it's not even remotely close.

Kind of a underwhelming list. No disrespect to the excellent fighters on it of course, but I don't think I've even considered a lot of them to be outside candidates for the HOF before now.

Had I a vote it would likely be for Rafael Marquez (the best mixture of (relative) "fame", ability and accomplishment on the list I reckon) and Santos Laciar (broadly forgotten 80s Flyweight champion, better fighter IMO than the likes of Calderon and Arbachakov (and HOFers like Mark Johnson) - Roman and Gonzalez being the best names on his OK record) - such a year without any super-obvious names is probably his only chance of making it. With the third vote I guess I'd go for the biggest name, the biggest "fame", which is Ricky Hatton.

But if I am predicting how the vote will go I'd guess Hatton, Calderon and Donald Curry make it.

Yes. Corrales and casamayor are superior to Mikkel Kessler.

I'd agree with casamayor, not chico laciar is a glaring omission.

John
Kessler
Hatton

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑29 Oct 2018, 20:44 Yes. Corrales and casamayor are superior to Mikkel Kessler.

Disagree.

i havent taken a close enough look at corralles and casamayors careers, to say in comparison to kess, but i do feel kessler gets underrated. imo he accomplished just as much if not more then ggg

Probably whoever I said last year. Curry, Eubank, Benn, and/or Hatton maybe? Marquez, Kessler, and John don't strike me as first ballot dudes. Despite the fact that Rafael Marquez is one of my personal favorites to watch. Oh wait, so is Julian Jackson.

Hatton, Calderon, Moorer

my choice would probably be Chris Eubank, Ricky Hatton, Donald Curry, Chris John and Dariusz Michalczewski but i would also consider Kessler, Benn, Hernandez, Moorer.

I am surprised to see people pick moorer. He won the legit title by beating holy but he was a wbo title holder at 175 before it was a major title and lost to foreman.

He has one huge win

Kessler was never the best fighter in his division. He has a great win over froch but was never on p4p lists and was also beaten by froch in the rematch and beaten by ward and calzaghe fairly handily

In the hall of very good not hall of fame

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑30 Oct 2018, 10:41 I am surprised to see people pick moorer. He won the legit title by beating holy but he was a wbo title holder at 175 before it was a major title and lost to foreman.

He has one huge win

WBO wasn't major then, but it is rated today, so for now Moorer has an impressive achievement of being 4-time World champ, 3-times at the HWs. Of course, the numbers aren't the decisive thing here. Maybe he had one huge win indeed, but he has quite some amount of decents wins anyway. Stewart and Cooper weren't really top fighters, but they were tough competitors, their names were in the mix in those times. Schulz also was tough, he was a kinda uncrowned champion, who arguably was robbed in title fights against Foreman and Botha. Furthermore, HoF induction spreads on the iconicness, not just remarkable stuff in the terms of achievements. Cooper fight is an iconic brawl, people watch and rewatch it often today. So I won't call Moorer just a man, who won Holyfield. He was a classy boxer with some really good moments. Exciting win or lose.

so if IBO once becomes a major recognized organization then all of the past IBO champions should be considered legit champions?

Yeah i also find fault with tbat logic. Tommy morrison was a wbo title holder but never a top 10 heavyweight. The wbo belt gained recognition the last 15 years... before that it was a ibo type title.

Axel schultz and botha are solid wins over guys in the 10 to 20 range. Carlos takam type fighters. Moorer has one win against a top hw. He was beaten i a rematch, knocked out by foreman amd obliterated by Tua. I yhink we need higher standards for a hall of fame.

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑30 Oct 2018, 16:25 Yeah i also find fault with tbat logic. Tommy morrison was a wbo title holder but never a top 10 heavyweight. The wbo belt gained recognition the last 15 years... before that it was a ibo type title.

Axel schultz and botha are solid wins over guys in the 10 to 20 range. Carlos takam type fighters. Moorer has one win against a top hw. He was beaten i a rematch, knocked out by foreman amd obliterated by Tua. I yhink we need higher standards for a hall of fame.

Accomplishing something that has never been done by someone else isn't a high standard?
In the long history of boxing Moorer stands alone as the only southpaw who was the linear heavyweight champion.

Being a southpaw isnt some sort of handicap

It is like saying "lennox is the first Jamaican hw champ" nice trivia note but ultimately not differentiating in terms of carer accomplishments

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑30 Oct 2018, 16:55 It is like saying "lennox is the first Jamaican hw champ" nice trivia note but ultimately not differentiating in terms of carer accomplishments

It is nothing like saying that. Everybody had to come from somewhere.
Nobody has to fight southpaw.
Being a southpaw champ is differentiating when there has only been one.

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑30 Oct 2018, 10:44 Kessler was never the best fighter in his division. He has a great win over froch but was never on p4p lists and was also beaten by froch in the rematch and beaten by ward and calzaghe fairly handily

In the hall of very good not hall of fame

Mikkel Kessler was a three-time world super-middleweight champion, competed in fifteen world championship bouts and only ever suffered losses against dead-cert first-ballot Hall-of-Famers, such as: Joe Calzaghe; Andre Ward; and Carl Froch. He also defeated several world champions and one Hall-of-Famer, as well spending an entire decade constantly competing in world championship bouts.

The 'Viking Warrior' was also automatically elevated as being regarded as the top dog of the super-middleweight division in 2007/8 when Joe Calzaghe started competing as a light heavyweight (as per The RING), which means that the Dane was almost certainly considered as the best fighter competing in his weight class for a period of time.

In terms of your assertion that Mikkel Kessler should not be inducted into the IBHoF, because he was never rated as a top-ten pound-for-pounder, well Arturo Gatti wasn’t either, but yet he’s a Hall-of-Famer.

And by exerting a trivial amount of effort, I could probably perform some research to name several other IBHoF inductees that fall into the same category. For instance: I’m pretty sure that Vitali Klitschko, Mike McCallum and Hector Camacho were never rated as top-ten pound-for-pounders by The RING or any other popular/reputable media sources.

dagilechia wrote: ↑30 Oct 2018, 11:55 so if IBO once becomes a major recognized organization then all of the past IBO champions should be considered legit champions?

Anyway IBO possessors weren't that good, than WBO's.

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑30 Oct 2018, 16:25 Yeah i also find fault with tbat logic. Tommy morrison was a wbo title holder but never a top 10 heavyweight. The wbo belt gained recognition the last 15 years... before that it was a ibo type title.

Axel schultz and botha are solid wins over guys in the 10 to 20 range. Carlos takam type fighters. Moorer has one win against a top hw. He was beaten i a rematch, knocked out by foreman amd obliterated by Tua. I yhink we need higher standards for a hall of fame.

Tommy Morrison, by the way, was twice in Ring's top 10. And actually his overall defeated opposition level arguable better, than Moorer's one. While Moorer was a common top 10 competitor of the 90s. Being a top fighter of 90s is a big deal for sure.

Schulz and Botha probably were more of a fighters from 10 to 20 range, but tell me, how more top 10 opponents Bowe had in his resume in comparison to Moorer's one?

There are a lot of good names mentioned. I would like to see Julian Jackson, Meldrick Taylor, Donald Curry and Vinny Paz make it.