Does it make sense to not have the hardest puncher ever in boxing HOF? That's what we're doing here in boxing. We punch. Wins over Terry Norris and Herol Graham put a lot of guys resumes to shame too.
I still wanna know how Micheal Nunn isn't in? Acutally there are quite a few guys I have questions regarding.
I favor the HOF being for truly great, legendary fighters. No doubt Jackson was a tremendous puncher, definitely one of the hardest P4P ever, but I don't consider him a great fighter. Sure if he gets lucky he could probably knock out any of the ATG in his weight class but was shown how one dimensional he was on several occasions and that he could be out punched and out boxed. I do consider him a very good boxer though and lesser fighters have made it into the Hall of Fame but Im just a bit more reserved on who they should allow into the Hall of Fame
Why should we leave him out because he lost to McCallum and McClellan? He also beat Norris and Graham. Everybody can't win every fight.
When they inducted a fictional Rocky Balboa into the HOF before Joe Frazier I was done. It's not about boxing, it's a popularity contest for people who don't have real life heros to look up to. So they worship imaginary ones.:-(
Jackson had his flaws, but, I strongly believe he should be in the IBHOF given the current inductees.
They put the Rocky statue up in Philly instead of one for Joe Frazier. Frazier made it into the HOF before Sly Stallone did. I think Frazier was in the IBHOF in its first year. If not, he should have. Stallone got in as a non-participant along with other screenwriters like Budd Schulberg. The only thing different is that the other screenwriters who got into Canastota also did sportswriting, while Stallone only did fiction writing.
Bigger questions to me are why isn't Fred McGriff in the baseball HOF and why isn't Kenny Stabler in the NFL HOF?
When I see guys like Ray Mancini and Arturo Gatti get in, than you have to question what the criteria is for prizefighters to make it into Canastota.
My point was those 2 guys stand out to me as being very undeserving for making it into the IBHOF when there are superior champions to them that have better resumes and haven't been inducted yet. So, in a way I agree with you. It looks like it's become more of a popularity contest rather than fighters making it in on their actual body of work during their careers.