Articles of 2004

Boxing Hall of Fame is not for Pretty Good Boxers

Published

19 years ago

November 5, 2004

The eminent American philosopher Julius Henry Marx once said that he wouldn’t wish to belong to any club that would have him as a member. It occurred to us as we opened our ballot for the Class of 2005 that Groucho might well have been describing the International Boxing Hall of Fame at Canastota.

The upstate New York institution has succeeded where several predecessors (and at least one contemporary competitor) have failed, and has successfully established itself as the guardian of the sport’s legacy. Past inductees, many of them the great champions of yesteryear, along with thousands of boxing fans flock to the annual induction ceremonies each June. The Canastota venue has become to boxing what Cooperstown is to baseball and Canton is to the National Football League.

Executive Director Ed Brophy has done a marvelous job in transforming the H of F from a far-fetched concept to a veritable institution in just 15 years, but if the Hall of Fame is to maintain that lofty standard, the time has come to alter the election procedure before the membership becomes hopelessly diluted.

Here’s the problem: This year’s electors were sent a ballot comprised of 45 names and instructed to vote for ten of them. The top four vote-getters from the following list of nominees will be elected.

Horacio Accavallo
Joey Archer
Jose Becerra
Johnny Bratton
Jimmy Carruthers
Bobby Chacon
Jung-Koo Chang
Donald Curry
Hioyuki Ebihara
Tommy Farr
Tiger Jack Fox
Ceferino Garcia
Betulio Gonzalez
Yoko Gushiken
Carlos Hernandez
Rafael Herrera
Al Hostak
Harry Jeffra
Peter Kane
Cocoa Kid
Pone Kingpetch
Tippy Larkin
Jose Legra
Duilio Loi
Barry McGuigan
Ernesto Marcel
Lloyd Marshall
Freddie Mills
Brian Mitchell
Rinty Monaghan
Terry Norris
Masao Ohba
Eddie Perkins
Gustave Roth
Lou Salica
Dave Sands
Petey Scalzo
Samuel Serrano
Yoshio Shirai
Kid Tunero
Holman Williams
Myung-Woo Yuh
Hilario Zapata

We defy anyone to find four bona fide Hall of Famers on that list, let alone ten.

The rules, of course, don’t require electors to vote for ten candidates. (Over the years, we’ve never used all ten votes, but then we’ve never used all ten for the Baseball Hall of Fame, either.) They do, however, require that four candidates be elected, and any way you slice it, putting in four boxers from this list is destined to water down the product.

We understand why the guidelines were originally established. Boxing had, as an organized sport, been in existence for over a century when the Hall of Fame put its roots down in 1989, and there was lots of catching up to do in those early years. But the time has now arrived to be more circumspect about future elections. If there are four deserving candidates in a year, sure, put them all in. But this is supposed to be a shrine for the sport’s immortals, not just those who had decent careers.

Some will argue that this year’s list of nominees includes fighters more deserving than some who are already IN the Hall of Fame. This merely proves our point: The saturation point has already been reached. The Hall of Fame enshrinees already include, for instance, Ken Norton, who was quite literally the only heavyweight “champion” in boxing history to lose all three title fights in which he participated.

One could make a legitimate argument that McGuigan, for instance, deserves inclusion for essentially the same reasons that Marcel Cerdan was posthumously elected to the Hall of Fame. Although Barry’s time atop the world stage was brief, but for geographic and political reasons he achieved a position that transcended the sport. He was not only the most revered sporting figure in two countries (Ireland and Great Britain), but was in the mid-1980s the world’s best featherweight, and beat another great champion in Eusebio Pedroza to get there.

A case could me made as well for Mitchell. It’s hard to ignore a 45-1-3 career record, even if it did take him 33 fights before he won one outside South Africa.

Apart from those two borderline cases, most of the names on the ballot don’t hold up well to scrutiny. A random sampling:

Pone Kingpetch won (and lost) the flyweight title three times, but he lost one-fifth of his career bouts (28-7), and was 3-3 in fights outside his native Thailand.

Archer (46-4) was a very decent middleweight of the 1960s who beat Dick Tiger, Hurricane Carter, and a 44 year-old Sugar Ray Robinson, but he fought for the title twice and lost both times to Emile Griffith.

Tommy Farr? He lost 30 fights – including five in a row when he was in his absolute prime.

Horacio Accavallo won the WBA flyweight title and had a record of 75-2-6, but consider this: 38 of his wins (37 in his native Argentina and one in Paraguay) came against opponents who’d never won a single fight!

Harry Jeffra (93-20-7) was a top-level club fighter who briefly held the bantamweight title, but he was knocked down three times by Sixto Escobar in their rematch and lost his only other title bid against Joey Archibald.

Ceferino Garcia was 100-26 and lost the three biggest fights of his career – to Barney Ross, Henry Armstrong, and Ken Overlin.

Donald Curry? 34-6, including losses to Terry Norris, Lloyd Honeyghan, Mike McCallum, and Michael Nunn.

Norris was 47-9, and while two of the losses came in his bizarre trilogy with Luis Santana, he was knocked out by both Julian Jackson and Simon Brown. Norris did win some big fights – his classic KO of John (The Beast) Mugabi and his humiliation of an aging Ray Leonard – but his was finished as a useful fighter by the age of 30, and closed out with losses to Keith Mullings, Dana Rosenblatt, and Laurent Boudouani.

If Norris gets elected in 2005 (which he may well be), should we put those three on next year’s ballot?

Here’s our suggestion: Since the membership has by now swelled to an acceptable number, there’s no longer any need to play catch-up by insisting on four new inductees each year. Baseball doesn’t do that, and the Hall of Fame is the better for it.

If the rules were amended to require that any nominee receive the vote of at least 75% of the electors, his selection would be more meaningful. If four guys get three-quarters of the vote, fine, induct all four of them. (If nobody gets 75%, put the top vote-getter in, if only to ensure that there will be an induction ceremony in June.)

This is, after all, supposed to be a Boxing Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Pretty Good Boxers.

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George Kimball

Articles of 2004

2004 Boxing Pound for Pound List

Published

19 years ago

December 31, 2004

Matthew Aguilar

The final boxing pound-for-pound list of the year for 2004.

1. Bernard Hopkins: The top guy from beginning to end, Hopkins took care of Oscar De La Hoya with a body shot in the biggest fight of 2004. Now, he'll wait for Jermain Taylor to progress a little further, or he'll go the rematch route with Felix Trinidad. Either way, Hopkins stands to earn a lot of money in 2005 and extend that all-time middleweight reign.

2. Floyd Mayweather: How long has it been since we've seen Mayweather in a meaningful fight? Certainly not in 2004, when he outpointed the difficult DeMarcus Corley. He's slated for a January outing against a no-name. Enough stalling, already, “Pretty Boy”. Fight someone we care about (preferably Kostya Tszyu), or you'll lose your #2 position sometime in 2005.

3. Felix Trinidad: “Tito” stormed back with a magnificent knockout of Ricardo Mayorga in 2004, and now hopes to capitalize on it with big money fights. He'd like nothing more than a rematch with his only conqueror, Hopkins, but he may also opt for old nemesis Oscar De La Hoya. Either way, Trinidad is sure to fight a big fight sometime in the coming year.

4. Kostya Tszyu: What a difference one fight makes. As recently as late October, the boxing world was wondering whether Tszyu was even serious about the sport anymore. We found out with a second round demolition of Sharmba Mitchell. And that made the junior welterweight division very attractive. Tszyu has several options now, including Arturo Gatti and Mayweather or even a hop up to welterweight to challenge Cory Spinks. Let's hope one of them happens in 2005.

5. Manny Pacquiao: Pacquiao fought twice in 2004, and what a fight the first one was. His thrilling war with Juan Manuel Marquez was the best brawl of the year, and there is a chance that the two rivals will go at it again in 2005. If not, Pacquiao has a list full of options: Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, etc. Pacquiao will fight one of them in the next year.

6. Marco Antonio Barrera: Another guy thought to be washed up when the year started, Barrera resurrected his career for the second time with a masterful victory over Paulie Ayala and a close decision over rival Erik Morales in another great fight. Barrera is obviously shooting for a return with Pacquiao, who decimated him in November 2003. Barrera says it was an off-night. Hopefully, we'll find out if that was the case.

7. Winky Wright: Winky entered the “superstar” realm in 2004 with a pair of decision victories over Shane Mosley. The first was very impressive, as Wright practically shut Mosley out. The second was closer, but proved once again that Winky was the superior fighter. He'd like a shot at Trinidad or Oscar De La Hoya, but neither will happen. He'd probably be best off shooting for a name like Fernando Vargas or Ricardo Mayorga.

8. Juan Manuel Marquez: After several years on the outside looking in, Marquez is finally in a position to make some money after his courageous performance against Pacquiao. He rose from three first-round knockdowns to wage the fight of his life in a fight that was ruled a draw. It would also be interesting to see Marquez against countrymen Barrera and Erik Morales.

9. Erik Morales: “El Terrible” fought another great fight against Barrera, but, again, it was in a losing cause. He has now lost two of three to his fierce rival, and probably wants nothing to do with him anymore. But, eventually, talk of Barrera-Morales 4 will come up again. In the meantime, Morales could shoot for Pacquiao or Marquez.

10. Glencoffe Johnson: The newest entry, Johnson pumped some life into boxing in 2004 with a pair of upsets of Roy Jones Jr. and Antonio Tarver. Now, he's set to make some really big money in rematches with either, or a shot at old conqueror Hopkins. Either way, Johnson is better than anyone imagined.

11. Jose Luis Castillo: Castillo made some comeback noise of his own in 2004, beating Juan Lazcano for his old vacant title and decisioning Joel Casamayor for another big win. He says he wants Kostya Tszyu next, and if that materializes, boxing fans will be in for a treat. If not, Castillo vs. Diego Corrales is a great fight.

12. Oscar De La Hoya: Hard to erase that picture of De La Hoya grimacing in agony courtesy of a Hopkins shot to the ribs, but the “Golden Boy” had no business fighting at 160 pounds. He should drop down to junior middle or even welterweight again if he has any hope of regaining his past form. But 2005 could be the final year for one of boxing's all-time great attractions.

On the brink: Antonio Tarver, Diego Corrales, James Toney

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Articles of 2004

Heavyweight Joe Mesi Bringing Lawsuit

Published

19 years ago

December 31, 2004

Editor

As reported by the Buffalo News, Joe Mesi is suing the New York State Athletic Commission and the MRI center that conducted tests on the heavyweight boxer after his bout with Vassiliy Jirov. Mesi reportedly suffered brain injuries in the Jirov bout, which has left his boxing status uncertain.

The lawsuit alleges Mesi's medical records were improperly released to the NYSAC. The records, the lawsuit goes on to allege, were then released to the media, prejudicing Mesi's right to have his status reviewed by the appropriate boxing authorities.

The lawsuit does not seek specific monetary damages, as the extent of damages will be affected by whether Mesi is able to resume his career as a leading heavyweight contender.

Mesi hopes to have his status reviewed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission within the coming month. The ruling of the NSAC promises to be key in whether Mesi will be able to resume his boxing career.

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Articles of 2004

The Best in Chicago Boxing Returns

Published

19 years ago

December 31, 2004

Editor

Dominic Pesoli's 8 Count Productions and Bob Arum's Top Rank Incorporated along with Miller Lite presents SOLO BOXEO DE MILLER, THE ARAGON RUMBLE, another installment of The Best in Chicago Boxing on Friday, January 14th, broadcast live internationally as part of Telefutura's Friday night professional boxing series.

The newly remodeled Aragon Ballroom is located at 1106 W. Lawrence Ave. near the corner of Lawrence and Broadway in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood and is easily accessible, just 4 blocks west of Lake Shore Drive and just 4 miles east of the Kennedy expressway. There are three large parking lots located within a 1/2 block of the Aragon Ballroom. Additionally, the Howard Street Blue Line stops just across the street. Doors will open at 6pm with the first bell at 7pm.

Headlining the action packed card is the American debut of super-bantamweight Ricardo “PIOLO” Castillo, 12-2 (6KO's) of Mexicali, Mexico as he squares off in a scheduled ten rounder against WBO Latino Champion, Edel Ruiz, 24-12-3 (13KO's) of Los Mochis, SI, Mexico. Castillo will be accompanied to the ring by his brother, World Lightweight Champion Jose Luis Castillo.

In the co-main event of the evening, one of Chicago's most popular fighters, middleweight “MACHO” Miguel Hernandez, 14-1 (9KO's), battles hard swinging local veteran “MARVELOUS” Shay Mobley, 7-4-1 (2KO's), of One In a Million Inc.in a scheduled eight rounder.

The huge undercard bouts include;

Carlos Molina vs TBA, six rounds, junior middleweights
Frankie Tafoya vs TBA, four rounds, featherweights
Ottu Holified vs. Allen Medina, four rounds, middleweights
Francisco Rodriguez vs. LaShaun Blair, four rounds, bantamweights
Rita Figueroa vs. Sarina Hayden, four rounds, junior welterweights

Said Dominic Pesoli, President of 8 Count Productions, “it was a terrific evening last month and our fans were thrilled to be at the Aragon to watch David, Speedy and Luciano. David Diaz's fight against Jaime Rangel was a fight people will talk about for a long time. Our commitment to our fans is to make every event of ours better than the last one. This main event is terrific, both guys are very tough Mexicans who won't take a step back.

The fans love Miguel and Mobley figures to be a very tough opponent. Him and David Estrada had a six round war last June at our show. And the undercard showcases a lot of new, younger talent that is coming out of Chicago right now. Tafoya and Holifield have both had very successful beginnings to their careers and Francisco Rodriguez comes with fantastic amateur credentials and David Diaz says he has all the talent to be a great pro.”

“We've got big plans for 2005 and this show should take up right where last months show left off. The huge crowd loved the action last time and I'm sure they'll say the same thing this time.”

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