Thanks to the hard work of @McGrain and the contributions of the forum we've recently inducted the first class of BN24 Hall of Famers. It was definitely a sterling group of inductees. In 2002 Ring magazine came out with their top 80 boxers of the last 80 years. Given that our inductees had to retire before the year 2000 I thought it would be interesting to do a bit of comparison. Of the 80 boxers on Ring's list 14 fought after 1999 and, therefore, did not qualify for our Hall of Fame. So, there were 66 boxers on Ring's list that were eligible. Also, a decent number of the options McGrain gave us fought before 1922 and I am not sure how Ring dealt with fighters who fought both before and after their 80 year mark Without further ado, here are the details. The numbers in parentheses are where they were ranked in the top 80 by Ring. Heavyweight - We agreed on five of seven - Ali (3), Louis (4), Marciano (12), Foreman (25), Frazier (42), Our list had Jack Johnson and Sam Langford who, most likely, did not qualify for Ring's timeframe. Their other two were Liston (71), who finished 8th for us, and Jack Dempsey (16). Light Heavyweight - Charles (13), Moore (14), Tunney (30), Spinks (41), Loughran (49), Foster (55), Conn (57) - Same top seven as us. Way to go, Ring Magazine. Middleweight - We agreed on five of seven - Greb (7), Monzon (11), Hagler (17), Tiger (31), Burley (39) Our other two were Fitzsimmons and Ketchel who didn't qualify timeframe wise. Ring's six and seven were Tiger Flowers (45) and Jake LaMotta (52) Welterweight - We agreed on six of the top seven honorees. Robinson (1), Leonard (8), Gavilan (26), Walker (28), Griffith (33), Napoles (56). Our seventh was Barbados Joe Walcott who did not qualify for Ring's time frame. Their seventh was Carmen Basilio whom they had rated at #40. Lightweight - We had three non-qualifying very old dudes in our top seven (Gans, McFarland and Welsh) but Ring did agree on the other four. That quartet included Leonard (9), Ross (21), Williams (23), and Carlos Ortiz (60). Please note that Ring did have Joe Brown (48) ahead of Ortiz. Featherweight - We did match on six of the men at 126; Armstrong (2), Pep (6), Saddler (15), Arguello (20), Sanchez (24), Canzoneri (34). Our seventh guy was Vicente Saldivar. He was the number ten featherweight for Ring behind Kid Chocolate (47), Freddie Miller (62) and Eusebio Pedroza(66). Ring had Saldivar at 73. Bantamweight - Once again we agreed on six of seven. Jofre (19), Olivares (29), Harada (32), Ortiz (38), Brown (46) and Zarate (76) Our seventh was Terry McGovern who fought too early to qualify. Ring only had six banties on their list. Flyweight - Ring only had four flyweights listed but all four were part of our septet. Perez (36), Canto (37), Villa (59) and Lynch (63). Other - Five of the six members of Ring's list that qualified for the "Others" group were in our top 7. They included Pryor (35). Galaxy (43), Gomez (54), Wilfred Benitez (68) and McCallum (79). Antonio Cervantes (69) did not make our top seven. Our pair of Jacks, Berg and O'Brien did not make Ring's elite group. It should be noted they fought too early to qualify for the list. Wildcard - This category was for those pugilists who just missed out on making the top seven of their original group. Just one of the seven, Jimmy McLarnin (58) was on the Ring list. Of the other six wildcards George Dixon and Tommy Ryan fought in an earlier era than Ring's cutoff while Jack Britton spent a lot of his career on both sides of the cutoff. The last three, Holman Williams, Lou Ambers and Jimmy Bivins did not make Ring's top 80. If you have made it this far, wow! .... and thank you. It's now time for a bit of a recap. There were 80 names on Ring's list. 14 did not qualify due to fighting in the 2000s. Of the remaining 66 fighters, 49 were part of our inaugural 70 member Hall of Fame Class. By far and away, the highest rated member of Ring's list whom we did not vote in was Jack Dempsey at #16. The only other qualifying member of the top 40 who did not pass our muster was Carmen Basilio at #40 One boxer, Vicente Saldivar was on both lists but did not qualify for Ring's top seven as he was their tenth rated featherweight. Perhaps most interesting is the fact that there were three boxers in Ring's top 80 whom McGrain saw fit to leave out of our voting options. That trio included Beau Jack who was Ring's #64, Marcel Cerdan (77) and Flash Elorde (78). maybe we will get the chance to vote for those three next year. I think I'm done now.
