Are these boxers bona fide great HALL OF FAME quality?

[1SILVA]

The problem with boxing's hall of fame is that it isn't a measure of greatness but rather popularity. Any fighter with a sizable fan following will get in which means Gatti is a lock and probably Mickey Ward too. The standards are just different than those of the baseball and football hall of fames. That's one of the reasons I never refer to people fighting "hall-of-famers" but rather narrow it to down to ATGs.

Poet

You make a great point. Ward making the HOF would be akin to Fred Patek making the baseball hof

[JAB5239]

You make a great point. Ward making the HOF would be akin to Fred Patek making the baseball hof

But there ARE fighters in their less accomplished in the profession ranks. Lazslo Papp was an outstanding amateur and basically screwed out of a promising career by his government. Does this mean he deserves to be mentioned amongst the best? Not in my opinion. The IBHOF is extremely flawed.

[1SILVA]

But there ARE fighters in their less accomplished in the profession ranks. Lazslo Papp was an outstanding amateur and basically screwed out of a promising career by his government. Does this mean he deserves to be mentioned amongst the best? Not in my opinion. The IBHOF is extremely flawed.

It depends on how the voters of the IBHOF look at it. The basketball HOF has several inductees who had a phenomenal college career and less than stellar pro career. If Teofilio Stevenson and Felix Savon were inducted, there would be many people for it. I'm not even sure if there is such a thing as an amateur HOF. If not, than these amateur greats, like Papp, get a chance to be inducted based on their amateur careers.

[trk]

I don't believe any of these guys are HOF worthy. I wouldn't vote for any of these guys over Lloyd marshall, Donald Curry and Naseem Hamed, 3 men that aren't in.

I'm surprised that Naseem Hamed didn't make it in on the first ballot. In terms of skills and accomplishments, he is easily better than any of the other candidates on the ballot.

Hernandez, Corrales, Castillo, and Hatton have each accomplished more than some of the fighters who are in the HOF and probably deserve to be inducted. Arturo Gatti is clearly the worst fighter of the bunch, if he becomes a HOFer it will only be because of popularity, not because of skills or accomplishments.

[hammerhiem]

I'm surprised that Naseem Hamed didn't make it in on the first ballot. In terms of skills and accomplishments, he is easily better than any of the other candidates on the ballot.

Hernandez, Corrales, Castillo, and Hatton have each accomplished more than some of the fighters who are in the HOF and probably deserve to be inducted. Arturo Gatti is clearly the worst fighter of the bunch, if he becomes a HOFer it will only be because of popularity, not because of skills or accomplishments.

I pretty much agree with this, If Gatti is going to get in and lets face it if McGuigan is in Gatti should, then the other four who have a far better set of achievements and accomplishments will.

Hatton will probably get in based on being a rare UK fighter who won Belts at two weights and held the Ring belt and was pretty much undisputed at his weight for half a decade.

For me the one shoe in of the bunch is Hernandez.