The official IBHOF class of 2018 ballot has been revealed:

At work so can't really check but how many of these guys are still among the living to potentially accept the honor in person? Nearly all?

 

Ha. I love it. Fatton doesn't even make your top 6 off this list of 32. You're going to get lambasted once the patriotic Brit contingent sniffs this out.

 

I kind of wish any of those was my name.

 

Never underestimate men in kilts!!!

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Glad to see another eschew the obvious fallacy of "b-b-b-but Ricky and Vitali are clearly two of the best names on there!" - a trap hopefully most of the cooler heads among the BWAA electorate body can avoid. (since presumably none of them should be approaching this with casual fan-boy mentalities)

I'm not saying Hatton and Klitschko don't someday belong in the Hall, nor would it even be improper to have them on the first ballot under other circumstances, but here they are hardly the shoe-ins most casuals would deem them on a first superficial glance, if you actual compare the quality of the body of work they produced with some of the other candidates in this field. Hatton's best win after Tszyu might be one I've always considered a robbery (versus Collazo) and if you amend his record to reflect that you have two brutal KO losses (one to a relatively light hitter at the weight and one to a guy half Ricky's natural size that had climbed up from light fly) plus a pair against feather-fisted above-average but-not-amazing boxers. He was effective at super lightweight because he was draining himself to bully smaller guys he could swarm and overwhelm on sheer physicality and hustle, but on a level playing field against welterweight he got his ears boxed off time and time again. Vitali meanwhile literally doesn't even have one single victory at heavyweight, initial run or comeback, that would cause me to say "Yeah, five or six more of exactly this caliber and he'd be a lock for the Hall, first-ballot". There are too many asterisks on too many of his wins that have decent 'name value'. (Peter was overrated AF, even moreso was Arreola), both K. Johnsons are fat lazy ****s that never fulfilled their potential, JC Gomez was a blown up cruiser, as was Adamek, Solis was a quickie fluke injury win, and Briggs was ancient).

 

^ a whole lotta butthurt white boys about to come outta the woodwork in a collective snit.

 

I'm going with the last one, because then people will assume I'm the brother or nephew or something of Erik Kil-Moon and it'll give my career prospects a boost (sort of like Diego De La Hoya!)