As we all know, Shane has announced his retirement this week so now we can take a look back at his career and reflect. I have to give him credit for what he has done in the sport and I think we all agree that he has been one of the best boxers of the last 20 years. However, in my opinion, cheating to gain an illegal advantage in such a brutal sport like boxing where you can easily kill another person is completely and utterly despicable and therefore those who are caught should suffer in terms of their legacy because like Floyd said, we don't know how many titles people like James Toney and Shane Mosley really won. It's entirely feasible that both of them took enhancement drugs for their entire careers (except for Mosley in the Mayweather fight of course). I think most people would agree with me that people who are proven cheaters should be denied entry into the Hall of Fame and unfortunatelely considering what he's accomplished, Shane is one of them. It's nothing against him personally. I just don't like cheaters.
Of course there is the possibility that he will get in despite that, though and if that is the case then everything will fall on whether he has done enough to earn it in terms of his career accomplishments. So let's put the whole cheating aspect to one side and pretend that he isn't a cheater. I want to know what you guys think. Has Shane earned a place amongst boxing legends? Is his resume and general legacy good enough for the HOF? I personally don't think so. He can say that he beat Oscar De La Hoya twice but I think most of us would agree that only one of those victories was truly legit. When you look beyond that his resume is really quite bare. He beat Ricardo Mayorga who was a very solid fighter and Phillip Holiday who seems to have been a pretty good fighter and his wins over Fernando Vargas were also pretty good but we can't ignore the fact that Vargas had already been knocked out by Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya and been exposed by Winky Wright also. Outside of that, what do you have? All you really have is Luis Collazo and some bum with no skills who was only ever winning fights because he had bricks in his gloves in Antonio Margarito. He also lost his biggest fights outside of De La Hoya with Forrest, Mayweather and Pacquiao. It looked to me like he didn't even try to win the Manny Pacquiao fight which has to be held against him regardless of whether he was injured or not. I don't think that he has a Hall of Fame resume and even if he did I still don't think Mosley should get in the HOF because he's a proven cheater, but i'm sure there are people with different opinions so I am curious to know what the general consensus is.
Please give me your take. Poll coming.
Of course there is the possibility that he will get in despite that, though and if that is the case then everything will fall on whether he has done enough to earn it in terms of his career accomplishments. So let's put the whole cheating aspect to one side and pretend that he isn't a cheater. I want to know what you guys think. Has Shane earned a place amongst boxing legends? Is his resume and general legacy good enough for the HOF? I personally don't think so. He can say that he beat Oscar De La Hoya twice but I think most of us would agree that only one of those victories was truly legit. When you look beyond that his resume is really quite bare. He beat Ricardo Mayorga who was a very solid fighter and Phillip Holiday who seems to have been a pretty good fighter and his wins over Fernando Vargas were also pretty good but we can't ignore the fact that Vargas had already been knocked out by Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya and been exposed by Winky Wright also. Outside of that, what do you have? All you really have is Luis Collazo and some bum with no skills who was only ever winning fights because he had bricks in his gloves in Antonio Margarito. He also lost his biggest fights outside of De La Hoya with Forrest, Mayweather and Pacquiao. It looked to me like he didn't even try to win the Manny Pacquiao fight which has to be held against him regardless of whether he was injured or not. I don't think that he has a Hall of Fame resume and even if he did I still don't think Mosley should get in the HOF because he's a proven cheater, but i'm sure there are people with different opinions so I am curious to know what the general consensus is.
Please give me your take. Poll coming.
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