Are Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank Hall Of Fame Worthy?

Most of guys only look at career/resume but there's more to it fools, why else do you think Gatti got in?

 

WTF kind of question is that..

 

I would like to point out that Gatti achieved more than both Eubank and Benn. Especially Eubank. Who was hopeless unless everything was stacked in his favour.

 

atsch Explain that one.
How did Gatti do more than Eubank?
Its not titles but who you fight and with Eubank he was a long reigning champ in a division.
Out of Eubanks 18 WBO SMW title fights 14 of those fights were against fighters who were, had been or became top 10 SMWs. One was a unification and another was against the undefeated former IBF SMW champ (relinquished his title). In fact 6 of the fighters he faced had been or became world champs.

 

It's not as good as anything on Eubank's entire resume, because Toney was literally half-dead after losing 60-70lbs in a few weeks.atsch

 

Came in to say this.

 

Yeah, James Toney's resume is one of the most overrated there is.

 

WBO during the 90s = WBU in the 00s. Worthless belt, worthless fighter.

Top 10 SMWs in what, universal rankings? Ring Mag? Post evidence they were either when Eubank was fighting them or a short period afterwards.

Do it.

 

HOF for sure, only person worth fighting in the US was Roy and it never happened, so what

 

Turning it around a bit, which Modern IBHOF inductees have weaker resumes than Benn or Eubank? Exclude Gatti and any heavyweights, who are exceptions for different reasons (regardless of whether those reasons are valid).

I'd be surprised if anyone could but a decent argument together for more than a handful, which even with the above exceptions would place them both in the lower decile of inductees in the event that they did get in.

Working on the basis that the bottom 10% of any HOF will be borderline and somewhat fortunate to be inducted, I don't see how anyone can make the claim that they definitely should get in. They are both borderline at best, alongside dozens of other borderline candidates, a small percentage of whom are lucky enough to get the call.

 

Does anyone know the rules regarding entry into the HOF or is it just down to opinion ?

 

Without getting bogged down in detail, for the IBHOF votes are cast by a panel of boxing writers and historians. Although it is supposedly an international spread, it is dominated by US-based writers.

For fighters, voting is based on their achievements in the ring as a professional. It's a pretty basic set of criteria, and to the best of my knowledge there aren't any additional guidelines to work to. The key point to note is that it is based on achievements, not on how "famous" a fighter is or was.

In practice, the voters have a lot of freedom over who they pick, and are obviously biased towards their favourites and fighters they know more about.

 

List what you want but the fact is Toney was miles better than anything Eubank beat and Jones outclassed and schooled him at SMW

 

Flawed statement. If they were American they wouldn't have huge media profiles built up from years of fighting on Saturday night terrestrial TV. They wouldn't have been fighting for WBO titles lined up by FW. Their career arcs would probably have followed a similar pattern to that followed by Collins - McCallum, Kalambay and Johnson rather than the round-robin series with Watson. They also wouldn't have the same intensely loyal fanbase who elevates them beyond their accomplishments because they have a chip on their shoulder about them not being given enough credit in America.

If you threw a green Benn in there with McCallum at the same point of his career it could have ruined him, bearing in mind what Watson was able to do to him.


The IBHOF gets a lot of (deserved) criticism for being watered-down and having some head-scratching inductees. However, it's still a pretty elite group. The Modern category has around 120 members over approximately 70 years of boxing. That's around 17 inductees per decade. If anyone seriously thinks that Benn and Eubank were among the 17 top fighters of the 90s, they really need to pull their head out of their ass and watch more fighters.

I think some people see the words "Benn", "Eubank" and "Hall of Fame" and just assume that it sounds right without even considering the level of fighter who gets inducted. Take away the joke inductions like Gatti, Ingo and McGuigan, and it should be clear that Benn and Eubank don't shape up to the general standard. We're talking two guys who held spurious titles at MW, never held more than a quarter of the championship at SMW, and have zero wins over HOF fighters. The vast majority of fighters in the IBHOF have either won a genuine world championship, were universally regarded as the best fighter in their divison, or have at least one win over a great fighter.

 

2 legends. Benn beat Mcclellan and barkley. Eubank beat benn. Both 2 Weight belt holders. Roy Jones ducked both