How do you feel about the Canastota Hall of Fame ?

If they put Ottke in, they need to induct Manfred Kuechler and Luca Montella with him — out of all of those title fights, one (or sometimes both together) managed to draw judging assignments for most of them. In all they combined to take up 18 judging spots for his title fights (all at home of course). There’s another couple names who have seven or so judging slots between them for Ottke fights.

 

He definitely came out on top in some questionable decisions. The guy was an outstanding boxer but his reputation is forever tarnished because of fights like the Ried bout. He certainly has the title defences to warrant the HOF but those wins come with a lot of question marks. The writers that vote won't forget.

 

I said in a past post that the fact that there are less really great boxers/refs/trainers etc worthy of HOF status that to hold this really thinning occasion every year means that entry requirements have to naturally be lowered. Instead of celebrating past entrants and hoping someone comes along worthy of joining them they hand out entry to ballot winners just to hold an awards ceremony. Will this award if that’s what you want to call it become so routine/irrelevant that some great boxer does what Marlon Brando did with the Oscars. “Don’t Want It”. If that ever happens I reckon Canastota may as well be a general celebration of boxing than the true greatness of any potential inductee. To summarise it’s become an absolute load of bollocks.

 

What halls of fame for sport don’t have some induction classes that are stronger than others?

In baseball do you stop inducting people just because they’re not Babe Ruth?

Celebrating the best of their time (whatever time that was) is what halls of fame do. All eras are not equal. I don’t see why that’s a big deal.

(Plus, boxers and other athletes are often more appreciated more in retrospect than in their times or even 10 or 20 years later. Guys we revere today as ATGs weren’t necessarily revered immediately. Hell, Harry Greb’s esteem has risen immeasurably in the last 50 or 60 years, for instance.)

 

Ok if that’s how you feel about it. See what happens in 5, 10 or 15 years. It won’t have the same impact.

 

Baseball doesnt have Roger Maris and you could argue Pete Rose deserves to be in despite his short comings. Statistically Rose deserves to be in from head to toes.

Boxing has so many fighters who deserve to be in and arent.....why is Ingemar Johannson in but not Sammy Serrano? Well yes, Ingo beat Floyd Patterson..but no successful title defenses....Serrano beat no one near the quality of Floyd but had 11 defenses...

Jose Luis Ramirez, Marvin Johnson, Wilfredo Vazquez, Santos Laciar, Leo Gamez and the list goes on...

But apart from that I like and largely respect the Hall of Fame. Most of the guys who are there deserve to be in, its a quality list of boxers they have inducted....and a quality list the ones they have not...

 

Well that’s purely subjective.

Can you quantify what impact it currently has, or has ever had?

 

any Boxing Researcher and many a serious fan comes across the sheer magnitude of great fighters who were swimming the deep waters and were or are a great danger to champions & contenders.

the same researchers soon learn, if they didn't already know, that Boxing is a Bent Business and many, many a great fighter remains in the deep water not able to get near the best prey or swept away by ocean currents forced to find other food or mere morsels.

there are dozens & dozens of great fighters who were as good or better than many of Boxing's applauded hero's, Dear God, how can we recognize all the crap about Boxing and then forget, overlook or not credit some of it's (Boxing's), victims.

more to the Halls - Great Champions, Contenders, Peoples Champions, Long Standing Great Careers, Feared Fighters and Great Unknowns... they could easily have Categories that house said fighters making their credibility more clear & understood.

God knows there are plenty of great & worthy men/fighters !

 

If an award gets handed out often enough it becomes less at less important. Getting into the IBHOF may or may not be important to some boxing people. I’m starting to lose interest in it. Maybe it’s just me. But I get the feeling it’s no longer the achievement it used to be.