Golovkin, Tarver and Benn voted into the IBHOF

Those two fights happened 8/9 years ago at MW between two prime fighters... the Crawford Canelo beat had 65 fights & was a pro for 20 years.. & despite being no bigger than Crawford (despite what the spin mongers say) he had already spent years at 168 & 175.. which will take its toll on a smaller fighter, especially with Canelos style. Let's see Crawford try that & then try look like he did a decade before fighting at a lower weight.. its not the same Canelo these days, he's spent. Silly comparison.

 

Difficult fighters age differently
Totally irrelevant comparison

 

Eubank fought Collins as his 44th fight and Benn fought him as his 48th, Usyk had a very illustrious and long amateur career and turned pro at 26 or something I believe. He has fought incredible competition and been through some extremely challenging circumstances in a completely different manner than those two. It’s natural I guess from the countless wars Eubank and Benn had been through along with by all accounts very rough sparring habits. They’re both known for being demonically tough for a reason. They also went through extremely traumatic incidents with McClellan and Watson which altered both of their outlooks and ferocity. Fighters just have different trajectories and windows of peak physical ability depending on various factors. Nobody can say Usyk hasn’t been through one of the best gauntlets in boxing history, those two were seriously faded by 32. Collins was a very capable fighter himself he isn’t exactly a terrible opponent to be beaten by.

Let’s also remember Crawford went straight up and beat a top dog at 154 then he went up to Canelo’s division with no catchweight and won the title.

 

Crawford began his career at 135 sir. Not at WW like Canelo. Canelo is absolutely the naturally heavier man between the two.

Point is that GGG was a career middleweight and could not outclass Canelo in 3 bouts. As controversial as that were. He never put on a dominant performance. Canelo also did not show any signs of a declining fighter before he fought Crawford. Other than Bivol, who was just too big and skilled. Bivol would have done the same to GGG or worse. He had some dynamite performances but he couldn’t live up to his expectations. I see him just edging the criteria of a hall of fame fighter.

 

Benn's main criterion for his induction is that he and Eubank catapulted British boxing back into the mainstream. It's the same reason Hatton was inducted: he brought a tsunami of new UK fans to the sport. Ten million people watched Benn fight Eubank on national TV in the UK.

I've got Uncles and elderly relatives who couldn't give less of a **** about the current state of British boxing but could give you a detailed breakdown of Benn vs Eubank and Benn vs McLellan. You could argue that he played the most crucial role in laying the foundations for the British boxing boom of the next generation, Carl Froch, and fighters like that.

If we're talking pure ability and pro achievements, he wouldn't get in, nor would Tarver. It's only Golovkin who qualifies really out of this crop, but the definition of HOF has sprawled so much that it feels like there's a multitude of things that can get you in there these days. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if Jake Paul got in a decade or so from now because he tens of millions watched him "fight" Tyson and Joshua.

 

Saying Collins should be in ahead of him tells me you haven’t watched either and base your opinions off boxrec. Benn is far more deserving

 

Would you bar fighters that use illegal tactics from the HOF? Because I can think of a few.

 

They would have been competitive, maybe not victorious but competitive

Which tells you they were world level

 

Benn was a dirty fighter, no doubt about it but there's no way of knowing that the G man would have won if that ref had been a bit more strict

 

Tarver TBH was made for the HOF. He was a character, was famous as a boxer, extremely well known, orator, legend slayer (yes Roy was burned out but still). That's kinda where he belongs. Golovkin made it by the merit of his dominating run. Benn, I dunno about that one. There's guys on the ballot I would've put in before him, but there's a number of guys I don't think belong..................

 

And Golovkin won two of them, regardless of what the corrupt judges said!

 

Yeah, at worst two wins for Golovkin and one loss for GGG.