Should Michael Moorer be in the HOF ?

For the love of everything good and decent in this sport, can we please stop calling Moorer a light heavyweight "champion"? The WBO was not seen as a legitimate world title at the time and Moorer vacated himself because he said it was, '******ing his career'. It's revisionism and merely hyper-inflates credentials that were far from sparkling. He was nothing more than a high-level contender at 175. Just from the 80s on, how would his CV compare to M. Johnson, the Muhammads, Spinks, Qawi, Hill, Michalczewski, Jones Jr., Griffin, G. Johnson, Tarver, Erdei, Dawson, Kovalev, Stevenson, Beterbiev, etc.? I think Moorer was certainly talented enough to beat some of these men, but we can't elect a guy on mythical matchmaking.

As for his heavyweight run, Heavyweight Champions always get more consideration than other Champions and I find it a tad annoying. It's why underserving men like Johansson get elected. It shouldn't be a golden ticket, much like it isn't in other divisions. Moorer didn't do much outside of beating Holyfield, who avenged it emphatically in the rematch.

He was a very good fighter, but less of his type should be inducted, not more.

 

I mean… he was the first ever southpaw heavyweight champion. That in itself is a good piece of history. He did legitimately beat prime Holyfield and had a good run at light heavyweight.

I don’t know, I think he should get a spot in the HOF. Plus he seems like a fair unbiased dude in interviews too. Always was cool towards the Klitschkos and other fighters who have gotten unfair flak. So maybe I’m a tad biased in that sense. Lol

Prime Michael Moorer was DANGEROUS. I see the Tua KO quickly being brought up. I think Tua was just always going to be a BAD matchup for Moorer. Moorer was a good boxer at his best but wasn’t exactly a mover nor did he have much range. You need to be at least one of those two things to last against prime Tua. Lol Too much power and too good of a chin.

 

Iv always liked the word probably. Lol. Its like saying yes but no.

 

I think so. Moorer was an excellent fighter and had some good wins. His record of 52 wins and 4 losses is no joke. HOF sounds right.

 

He never went life and death with Botha. He completely controlled the fight and knocked Botha out in the 12th round. I had Moorer winning 9 rounds to 2 before the stoppage, Jim Watts haf him winning 10 to 1. Even Don King's (who was Botha's) promoter had Moorer winning widely before the KO, two of them

 

No he dominated a very weak Light Heavyweight division beat an off night Holyfield and lost to a badly diminished George Foreman in his first title defense.

 

He was taken to the hospital directly after the fight. He got his rib broken and jaw dislocated. It wasn't that easy a fight for him.

 

I'd say no.

 

He did more than that. People forget that when he was a younger fighter he took on fighters that a lot of guys avoided. Alex Stewart had only lost to prime Tyson and Prime Holyfield when Moorer fought him. Botha was undefeated and dangerous at the time they fought. Axel Schulz was a tricky guy that folks were not lining up to fight let alone travel to Germany to do so. Vassily Jirov was an Olympic gold medalist and Cruiserweight champ that had just ended the career of Joe Messi when Moorer knocked him out.

Regardless of whether he did enough to make the hall of fame the guy was a hell of a fighter that didn't duck anyone and showed some real resilience. Aside from coming back from the brink against Bert Cooper in a classic fight, I respect the hell out of how he picked up the pieces after the Foreman loss to regain the title. He got up from multiple knockdown in the second Holyfield fight and never quit unlike Tyson.