What fighter in the hall of fame represents the bare minimum to get in?

Honestly, I respectfully disagree as I do not believe James Toney represent the bare minimum to get into the Hall of Fame. It's arguable to say that Toney became a future Hall of Famer by the time he finished his middleweight championship reign as he defeated borderline HoFer and P4Per at the time Michael Nunn and had a good trilogy against HoFer Mike McCallum. Toney didn't stop there and stopped Iran Barkley at 168, who recently had a good victory over Tommy "Hitman" Hearns. Even when Toney lost to RJJ, he was able to get a title against formidable Jirov at cruiserweight and gave a good account himself in heavyweight against Holyfield (but based on being caught for PEDs, can't count the John Ruiz win). Based on this summary of Toney's career, imo, that doesn't look like the bare minimum to me.

If you are asking me for bare minimum (only accomplishments as a fighter not as a coach or commentator), probably, Timothy Bradley, Miguel Cotto, Barry Mcguigan, Buddy McGirt, Edwin Rosario, Hector "Macho" Camacho, Johnny Tapia, and Daniel Zaragoza (mostly due to lack of prime and quantity of victories against HoFers). Feel free to tell me what you think as I love to hear your opinions.

 

It is the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Merit, so there are two things going on.

You have men like McGuigan, who got in predominantly due to their political impact.

Not taking anything away from them.

I think that a few heavyweights got in, who would not have been considered, if they had accomplished the same in another weight class.

Where would a bantamweight Jimmy Braddock be in the argument?

Where would a flyweight George Godfrey II be in the argument?

 

Unfortunately, he's not in there but I think Iran Barkley represents a good litmus test for the hof. If you had a better career than Iran, you probably deserve to be in the HoF.

Of the guys who are actually in there, I think Jeff Fenech and Andre Ward are on the line mostly because they had pretty brief pro careers in terms of number of fights.

Some of the old timer lineal hw champs, gatti and prince naseem are some questionable inclusions, imo. but i also concede that it is the hall of FAME, and perhaps just letting fame be the decider rather than a subjective assessment of accomplishments or h2h greatness is better.

 

I did not mean that as a slight to Toney …I meant it as a compliment…because none of the other guys you named are bonafide hall of famers in my book …that’s why Toney is the bare minimum

 

Brian Mitchell and Michael Carbajal are among the least deserving inductees.

Kostya Tszyu deserves to be in the hall of fame(Borderline All Time Great) but anyone inferior to him shouldn’t be.

 

As a fighter, Mills Lane has a pretty thin pro record of 11 bouts 47 rounds 10W 1L.
Im pretty sure he was inducted into the hall of fame as a boxing referee though. I have Lane in my top 5 best referees of all time.