Does Nigel Benn deserve a place in the HOF

nut:nut

 

I can see the point your trying to make but the criteria for being a HOFer comes down more to an impact that you left on the sport and respect earned from fans and media coupled with significant achievements.

Yeah he never unified a division or made 20+ defences of a world title but it is not that simple.

He was a KO artist with obscene one punch KO power at MW I mean look at the number of 1st and 2nd KO's he amassed.
He was a popular fighter and very very exciting to watch.
He fought many world class fighter home and away.
Won a world title in the USA at MW and another in Italy at SMW by stoppage on both occasions.
Mega fights with Eubank and Mcclenllan.
Fair point he was only well know to non boxing fans in the UK but I bet you can not say the same for Gatti and Ward since you tried to compare them to Benn.

 

hmmmm.... i always thought Nigel was a certainty for the HOF


But after seeing the poll results, i'm just not so sure.....

 

I agree with on your Calzaghe point. He will have his loyal fans but he has so many haters based on his non ambitious WBO years which really hurt his reputation. If only he never allowed him self to be pimped by Warren.

 

So you judge a hall of famer on how crowd pleasing they are rather than their boxing ability. You must of hated sweet pea and you cant like floyd under those criteria. I dont really know what to say other than you should probably follow bare fist fighting or something like that rather than the sweet art of boxing.

 

Yeah Warren wrapped him up for so long i think he even doubted himself towards the end.
I know for a fact that he was not as confident going in to the Kessler fight as he would of liked people to believe.
He should have ****ed snake eyes off years ago.
I honestlt think it took Lacy and Kessler Before he realised what he had.
And by that time he had wasted most of his career.

 

That's why I feel Eubank has a better case for the HOF than Benn. In an ideal world neither of them would be in there to be honest, but if McGuigan can get in there then those two deserve to be in there as well.

 

I think you missed my point.
HOF is not P4P.
And Benn had ability.
He was a worthy oponent for Roy Jones in his hay day. (And im not saying he would have beat him butr he would have give him something to think about)

 

So are only skilled feather fisted fighter allowed in to your HOF? Clearly your a guy that appreciates the slick skilful flair fighters and I dont knock you for that but other people have different tastes.

Not to imply that Benn had no skill because of cause it is a relative thing but some fans like me just enjoy watching a warrior with sickening one punch KO power put it all on the line as opposed to watching a defensive/ skillfull fighter run and play safe to a 12 round UD.

 

Why in an ideal world hould Eubank and Benn not be in the HOF? My only reason for not putting Eubank in the HOF is because he even admitted him self he was never interested in legacy and only in money hence he underachieved and fought at mediocore level for long periods.

 

There are standout fighters from every boxing era.
I grew up watching Mcguigan, Eubank, Benn, Collins, Watson, and the rest.
They were all great fighters but the stand out for me was Benn.
Eubank was technically better and so was Watson but Benn was the one Who you got excited about.
The guy was just mean to the ****ing bone.
and his fights are the ones that i will always remember.
There was nobody like him and nobody like him since.
You could see the fear in the fighters eyes when they were trying to stare out Benn.

 

Like I say if you could choose any fighter to represent your country this guy would be top of the list.

 

My hall of fame would only include the very best fighters of they're generations. I loved to watch benn too but in my eyes in his generation he didnt stand out from rjj, toney, mccullum, eubank and maybe even nunn. Just my opinion

 

True but he did step it up early in his career and he somehow prevailed every time.

Maybe I was talking bollocks before, I was thinking that maybe people that held titles for longer should go in, I was being biased against the WBO probably as even 20 years in I still think of it as a mickey mouse crown. Then I remembered Slappy Joe and his 10 years of clinging to the crappy WBO belt and thought "hmm maybe Benn having that WBC title meant something special after all, especially when you consider who he beat"

**** knows, I'm tying myself up in knots thinking about the criteria here. I would put Benn and Eubank in before Slappy though.

 

That is a flawed criteria if you consider that some generations in certain divsions can be weak or strong at different times.

BHOP stood out in a weak MW division but his HOF place was guaranteed before the Tarver fight.

Calzaghe stood out in a so so SMW division and will probably go to the HOF.