The official IBHOF class of 2018 ballot has been revealed:

(per Fat Dan, on Twitter)

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I believe this is Calderón's first year of eligibility? Anyway, he should go straight in. Between the Finito López and Chocolatito González eras nobody else had as dominant a run in that weight range. Time caught up with him in an ugly way and the KO losses in his twilight are perhaps the lasting impression that many best remember, but his prime he was made of water, couldn't be touched and barely ever lost a round.

Donald Curry is long overdue, IMO. His shaky whiskers and unreliable gas tank let him down at some highly inopportune moments in his career, so it could have certainly been greater with the amount of pure talent he possessed, but he was absolutely p4p material for a sizable chunk of the mid-eighties, and he went on to rally and become a 2-division champion even after things started coming off the rails for him.

Those are just my initial thoughts. Some of these other names, wow - lots of cans of worms just waiting to burst here. Some of these could spawn their own 50-page debate threads by themselves.

 

Let's spice this up - everybody make your (unofficial ) five picks.

Harder than it looks, no? Gonna be a stressful rest of the month for Rafael and the rest of the electorate.

 

Haha, maybe someday.

 

The Hawk ahead of the Lone Star Cobra?

I do think h2h any 154lb version of Curry does most likely get KTFO by Jackson (up on the cards before getting pulverized) but on résumé...?

 

Nice to see the oft-neglected sub-bantam zone get some love here with many of its all time greats (Laciar, Gámez, Wongcharoen, Moon, Roman, Phothong, and Calderón) as nominees - even if none of them except maybe Iron Boy have a high probability of elbowing their way into Canastota enshrinement ahead of all these much bigger and more famous men.

 

I was originally questioning whether Gussie Nazarov truly belonged in such hallowed company as the rest of the list but the more I dig the more intriguing an enigma he is.

This eleven year old thread in particular:

http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45119

Some knowledgeable folks there, none of them saying Nazarov vs. Mosley prime for prime at 135lbs is anything but a razor-thin contest. That's no faint praise.

 

Serrano is probably in the "should be grateful just to be nominated" boat. His title defenses are sorely lacking in consistency of quality (some is shockingly poor) and he was always shaky, dropped and hurt even in many of his wins...and smack in his prime he was bested clearly- despite the SD- by a one-foot-out-the-door, ready-to-retire Ñato Marcel. (though in fairness the same can be said of Argüello)

 

This is probably what to expect, yeah.

Part of me (one small, mischievous, "some people just want to watch the world burn" part) really hopes we get one complete whackadoo entry just to liven things a bit...like Vinny Paz or Buddy McGirt.

 

Hot take: I don't really think Vitali has a HOF worthy résumé.

*collective gasp!*