by David P. Greisman
What goes on with the International Boxing Hall of Fame will always be less important than the fights themselves, less important than the fighters who participate in them, and somehow even less important than the politics and corruption that can have repercussions on the amount of money, opportunities and glory they receive.
But what goes on with the IBHOF is still important. All boxers should aim to hang up the gloves with their pride, health and bank accounts intact. The pinnacle of achievement, however, is being enshrined within Canastota.
That small town in Upstate New York was the birthplace of former welterweight and middleweight champion Carmen Basilio. It is east of Syracuse, just off Interstate 90, and is the true Hall of Fame for the Sweet Science.
This being boxing, there are of course multiple other halls, including the World Boxing Hall of Fame based in California and the recently established Boxing Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, which isn’t to be confused with the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame or any of the boxing halls of fame for other states.
Full disclosure: As a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, I am among the voters in the “modern” category of boxers.
And we voting members just received our ballots — and notification of changes in the way things are done.
“Modern” used to include any boxers whose last fight came no earlier than 1943. As of this year’s voting — the inductees will be announced by the end of 2014 and will be officially enshrined in June 2015 — that cutoff is now 1989.
That in turn moved a large number of names to the “Old Timer” category, which in turn cleared up space on the “Modern” ballot. For whatever reason, there had only been a few new names added each year, always replacing the previous year’s inductees. That was the case even though many more fighters had been retired for at least five years and hence were eligible for induction.
A total of 32 names that didn’t make it into the Hall of Fame the last time around are no longer under “Modern” thanks to when their careers ended. Ten other holdovers do remain on the “Modern” ballot:
- Donald Curry
- Naseem Hamed
- Santos Laciar
- Miguel “Happy” Lora
- Henry Maske
- Darius Michalczewski
- Sven Ottke
- Samuel Serrano
- Wilfredo Vazquez
- Hilario Zapata.
That, in turn, brings 20 new names on the “Modern” ballot that just landed in voters’ mailboxes:
- Paulie Ayala
- Nigel Benn
- Riddick Bowe
- Chris Eubank
- Leo Gamez
- Genaro Hernandez
- Julian Jackson
- Rocky Lockridge
- James “Buddy” McGirt
- Ray Mancini
- Sung-Kil Moon
- Michael Moorer
- Orzubek “Gussie” Nazarov
- Vinny Pazienza
- Lupe Pintor
- Gilberto Roman
- Gianfranco Rosi
- Ratanapol Sor Vorapin
- Meldrick Taylor
- Fernando Vargas
There were a few other changes: The “Pioneer” category for boxers whose last fight came in or before 1892, will now be voted on every five years instead of on an annual basis. The “Old-Timer” category, has its voting split up due to its ranks now being plumped up. One year is for boxers whose careers ended between 1893 and 1942. The subsequent year will be for those whose careers ended between 1943 and 1988.
“Modern” voting remains annual, but instead of voters picking up to 10 names, we now can only pick up to five. This rule remains the same: The top three will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
It’s great that there are finally many more new names on the ballot, rather than just a few each year joining dozens of stragglers.
I do wish that “top three” rule would change, though.
It’s problematic that there still is automatic induction for the top three vote getters, rather than a minimum percentage threshold.
The Baseball Hall of Fame requires an inductee to receive votes from at last 75 percent of the ballots cast. The Basketball Hall of Fame requires the same percentage, “yes” votes from a minimum of 18 of its 24 Honors Committee members. Hockey’s threshold is 75 percent. And the Pro Football Hall of Fame inducts four to eight people each year, with each needing a minimum of 80 percent of the votes.
Some years there have been numerous worthy candidates on the ballot and only three making it in. Some of those worthy names that have taken a while to be inducted — or still haven’t been — tend to be from other countries that the presumably majority American voter base might not be familiar with, or from eras that the voters hadn’t followed closely.
But the lack of a threshold requirement has also meant that in some years there is a dearth of top candidates, and that has led to a handful of questionable names receiving an honor that should otherwise be limited to the best of the best of the best.
I understand why the IBHOF is reticent to change that rule. The annual Hall of Fame festivities run for a handful of days every June and bring a significant amount of boxers, boxing fans and business to what is otherwise a quiet section of Upstate New York, one that isn’t the easiest to get to and isn’t going to be visited anywhere near as much at other times of the year.
An induction class with fewer modern names or even none at all — as happened with baseball in 2013 — would be bad for business.
Boxing, after all, doesn’t have the sizable audiences that the four major pro sports in the United States do. Cooperstown is also in Upstate New York, about 80 minutes east of Canastota, but baseball is much more revered.
Perhaps I’m just a stickler for high standards, but I think a percentage threshold would help maintain the integrity of the institution. More transparency would also do some good. There should be a list of voters for each category posted on the IBHOF’s website, and every year the vote totals for each candidate should also be released.
In the grand scheme, all of this isn’t as big a deal as the matches themselves, fighter safety, the need for better drug testing, and protecting boxers from taking too much punishment and from being taken advantage of.
But we still care about what happens afterward, and we still celebrate when a boxer hangs up his gloves and at least five years later has his plaque hanging on a wall in Canastota.
The recent changes made by the International Boxing Hall of Fame are a good start. There’s a little bit more that should be done to ensure that those who make it in truly belong.
The 10 Count is on vacation but will be back soon.
“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
