I know he doesn’t have the strongest resume. But he’s a two division champion with a 15-2 title fight record. The first southpaw to capture the heavyweight title. Has wins over four or five past or present champions. Left the game with an overall record of 52-4-1-40. I can understand arguments which might keep him out of the HOF but I think most of us can agree there are probably less deserving guys in there. My $0.02
For the positive reasons you list, I agree - he should be in the HOF. Unfortunately for MM, his biggest win was against a beloved champion who claimed to have a life-threatening heart condition, and his greatest loss happened on the greatest stage to one of the greatest feel-good stories in sports.
I mean it's kind of weird for him not to be considering i think most people have him as a top 10 modern Light Heavy
He was a great champion...... but no. In a few years basically every fighter that ever had any relevance will be in the HoF. Listen to me, they make anybody and everybody over there. Either it has meaning or no meaning.
I think he is talented enough to be a hall of famer but he didn't get the fights at Light-Heavyweight to solidify the argument for him. I believe he would have beat both Hill and Maske at 175 had he got the chance and I think he could have picked up a third title at Cruiserweight had he stopped there before moving to heavyweight. With that said, he will likely get in at some point just like Curry and Mgirt recently did after waiting years.
Tua certainly iced MM but MM was a two division champion and a one of the very few guys to move up from 175 to win at heavyweight. Tua never even won a major title.
No. Tua failed in his two biggest fights Lewis and Byrd. BYRD, he lost to BYRD! He lost to Ike. He was lucky to get a draw with a limited Rahman, in the other fight his hit Rahman late to win. Under achievers Hall of Fame maybe.
True. And I’ll add that Moorer was on the comeback trail and pretty well past it. Not that he’d ever beat Tua. I think that was a bad stylistic match for him. As you say Tua was never a champion. He did have some big wins though over guys like Ruiz, Maskaev and Rahaman ( controversially ). Was never stopped in around 60 fights.
Agree. Leslie Steward was no legacy win. But Moorer got about 10 of those WBO title wins and all in fast devastating fashion and while barely being in the pros long