to be honest, i've rarely seen him rated that high. in terms of power, for sure. but all time, he'd scrape top 100 to be honest.
I look at his record and watch his clips and I dont even see how he was ever considered top 10 p4p and in the HOF.
HOF i can understand based on length of reign (albeit in a weak division) and string of knockouts his resume and competition are severley lacking and he from all accounts, he was a knockout artist who did not develop the technical skills to beat the very elite (course he never had to) for many, his brother was much the superior boxer
His inclusion in the IBHOF is a matter of political correctness due to regional bias, a gesture of tokenism. My father attended the induction ceremony when he entered, and said they made a really big thing of it. I remember a letter to the editor published in one of the boxing magazines strenuously protesting his exclusion about a year before he attained enshrinement, and I wonder if that specific letter was the trigger which caused him to be admitted, something which heavily swayed HOF voters who happened to read it.
it's possible but from what i've read there was a strong push immediately after he retired. being champion along with his brother created some interest and combined with his dominance and knockout ability, there was an assumption he'd get in. regional correctness likely played a part to but for all the many fighters out of Asia that are routinely ignored, i can live with that
I don't mind him being in really.The hall have shown the level of fighters they want is very good and upward, not just the widely agreed on all-time great types.Plus he's a good entry level sort of fighter for the lighter-weights for the more casual fan, like Carbajal or Gonzalez. Fair enough, but there are plenty of more or equally deserving fighters from that region and weightclass that seem to be thoroughly overlooked.Personally i just tend to think a lot of the voters(especially American and Brit)just won't be that knowledgeable or interested in the sub-feather divisions, hence only the well established and documented greats and a few token popular or mythologised fighters get in.
It takes more than mere clips of fights to get a real feel for how a fighter does his thing. Full fights are the only way to go. I would agree that he wasn't terribly impressive to watch though. Physical strength and power were pretty much where he was at, but I think he deserves credit, and deserves to be in the hall. He was champ a long time, and even in a weak division that takes some doing.
On this forum he's not highly regarded at all really, in fact most frequent posters here don't like him head to head either too much. I think he's clearly capable of proving himself quite effective myself, it wouldn't be easy to outbox him or anything.
The main problem isn't weak division per se, it's that it was actually quite strong at the time(the only time in it's brief history really) and he managed to avoid almost every solid challenger in favour of tocker pudwill types.Only a handful of worthy defences, while his other highly rated contemporaries mixed in their so-so defences with clashes against each other.Especially Roman, Laciar, Moon, Konadu. To be fair to Galaxy though, he may well have ended up fighting Watanabe as challenger, but Jiro at that point was established and looking to unify with Poonterat, thus the fight never materialised.
Completely dominating weak opposition consistently impresses some while on the other end of the spectrum disappointing some. It's a fickle situation.
