Why is Alfredo Escalera not in the IBHOF?

I firmly believe he should be in the Hall, tremendous fighter. Possibly hard feelings toward Alfredo due to the Tyrone Everett robbery.

 

Because he is not american or british.
The Canastota Hall of Fame, that I respect, and I respect the voters too, will unwittingly (I´m not saying they vote in bad faith) pay attention to american and british fighters much more than others...
Tell me why a guy like Ratón Macias, that was the most beloved boxing figure in Mexico, is not there while someone like Carl Froch or Barry McGuigan or Tim Bradley is ?

They have 0 venezuelans there. Why not Betulio Gonzalez while you have Ray Mancini ? You don´t have Horacio Acavallo but then everybody vote for Naseem Hamed ?

 

This is part of it. It’s considered by many the worst robbery decision in the history of the sport and that resonated hard with many of the power brokers in boxing — especially the East Coast establishment media types who were (and are) very influential over perception.

There’s also the fact that Escalera has an uncommon number of losses to no-name club fighters (not just in his declining years, either) and the fact that he came up short twice against Arguello in his two biggest, most-high profile fights.

I’m not saying he’s a no-go from the start, but there are legit strikes against him that are fair consideration in not putting him in.

 

not famous enough.

it's the hall of fame not the hall of great.

 

Primo Carnera is not in, and I'm absolutely not okay with that. Not a joke, not a forum joke persona. I want to see the man in.

 

Not American? Are you suggesting that there are no Puerto Rican fighters in the IBHoF? No other non-Americans? Bunk.

Who among the voters do you think don’t know who he is/was? They have voters from around the world and the Boxing Writers Association (which is not exclusively U.S.). It’s easy to say ‘these people aren’t qualified’ if you don’t actually qualify yourself who you mean — so give us some names.

I don’t think Escalera is a lock to go in. Not like he’s a first-ballot, slam-dunk, Michael Jordan-esque figure.

Here’s things that work against him:

Three of his successful defenses came after he beat Everett by absolute robbery — mob figures were involved. People including the promoter have gone on record about this and named names.

So any defense after that is kind of a sham.

He lost his two biggest fights, to Arguello, and was stopped both times. He’s mainly known for being in a couple of bloody fights that were wars, but wars that he lost decisively.

Between Arguello fights, so certainly not past-prime, he lost to a 14-6-2 guy. We gonna put Julio Valdez in there too (that’s the guy who beat him).

In the year before he won the title, he lost to a 10-6-1 guy and was stopped by a 4-2 guy (who retired 5-5, so never won another figh).

Those don’t scream ‘Hall of Fame lock who is being discriminated against’ to me.

Riddle me this: What is his best win? What are his best five wins?

He won 53 out of 70 fights. Nice career but not eye-popping. And it’s not like most of his losses came in his declining years.

 

Primo Carnera is not in, but Harry Wills and Jack Sharkey are. I guess we are silly to believe it would be fair but anyway, we can at least speak about it...

 

It’s quite a leap to go from ‘I knew people (who I won’t name) who didn’t know who an Irish non-champion who’s been dead for more than 50 years and fought well over 100 years ago is’ to ‘MOST OF THEM wouldn’t know who Escalera is’ — considering I think you’d certainly concede that MOST OF THEM (actually I’d wager all of them) know who Alexis Arguello, Escalera’s unquestioned most high-profile opponent, is.

Would you assume that someone who wasn’t familiar with Daniel Mendoza also had no idea who Mike Tyson or Larry Holmes are, lol?

Likewise, to say ‘he’s not in because he’s not American’ (no, I’m not making some point about whether Puerto Ricans are American) while acknowledging that plenty of other non-Americans are in, including a number of Puerto Ricans … what exactly are you basing that upon, then?

As an auxiliary member of the HoF committee, did you try to get Escalera in? You seem incredulous that he’s not, blaming a non-American bias and ignorant electors and not his somewhat spotty resume, so surely you made a heroic effort to right this incredible wrong.

Nobody here is being hostile nor angry. I’m challenging you on a couple of frankly puzzling (to be kind) statements that I find it hard to believe that you even believe — if it’s that he’s non-American, how do you explain other non-Americans getting in, and some of them hardly household names? And how in heck do you equate not knowing a 1970s fighter to not knowing an 1800s guy? So I challenged you on them.

I thought that’s how discourse worked.

 

Not as long as it’s been since I’ve seen an ‘adult male’ engage in conversation in this manner, rest assured.

I fail to see where you backed up your assertion (in fact, to your credit you seem to have backed down off of it) that MOST OF THEM wouldn’t have known who he was.

I still don’t understand what not being an American has to do with it. If the majority of electors are Americans and Puerto Ricans and people from other countries routinely get in, then … what’s your point?

You seem pretty soured and jaded by your experience as an auxiliary elector. Perhaps understandably. But don’t throw stuff out there if you aren’t willing to be challenged on it.

 

I said that too. And it is very clear to me (about them quickly inducting americans, and I added british too, and maybe the correct way to put it would be english-speaking fighters get there more quickly)...

The problem with this thread is that Escalera is a bad example because he is far from being the most deserving non inducted guy there... but why Esteban De Jesus is not there ?
Why not... Chuco Castillo ? Benny Kid Paret for example ? And so on...