Why is Michael Moorer not in the hall of fame?

Did he?

His WBA title winning effort and subsequent defenses were all against Mediocrities

He made Bramble look better than he was.

Valiant yet losing effort to Arguello, similar to the level of performance several others had in losing efforts against Alexis, probably not as competitive against Arguello as Watt was at around the same time.

Mancini was very overhyped and had one of the shrewdest managers round, David Wolf.

 

I'll give you credit for at least not leaning on that old chestnut "glorified clubfighter." Congratulations on at least that much originality.

 

He certainly had me glued to my TV set for a few years. In no way am I comparing Ray Mancini to Butterbean (nor Michael Moorer).

Perhaps there should be levels in the HoF. There are tons of guys who were regularly featured on television and drew crowds and had exciting fights. They might not be all time greats, but they contributed to the game in a positive way.

Moorer is a legit lineal heavyweight champion. To a certain extent, he should be in just for that. As noted, first southpaw champ too. But I can see the counter arguments, i.e. the HoF induction should be reserved for the true greats.

 

To be fair he does not have the best resume nor is he popular, but I think his accomplishments are enough to warrant him an inclusion. He's in a pretty elite group of light-heavyweights that moved up and won a heavyweight title, against a respected, elite champion like Holyfield no less. And he regained a portion of the title after losing it in a historically tremendous bout, making a few defenses. First southpaw HW champion.

If guys like Norton or Bowe are in, why not him? But eh.

 

If Don King got in then it appears that one can get in even if they caused great harm to both the sport and it's participants.

 

Because he simply hasn't been voted in.. Fighters get in when they get votes.. Lesser men have gotten into the hall than moorer..

 

Anyone who thinks Moorer isn't HOF worthy is nuts. But it's something I've uttered here and on other forums time and time again.

Forget about what Toney and Roy did by beating that fraud Ruiz. Moorer jumped up from LHW and beat THE man at HW.

 

This.

Moorer has elite win over the man in his division, Evander Holyfield.

Besides that, he beat James Smith, Bert Cooper, Axel Shulz, Francois Botha, Alex Stewart, Vaughn Bean and Vasiliy Jirov at HW - far from great resume, of course, but good for someone who moved up from LHW.

If we talk about Gatti, he never came close to beat elite man in his division and lost badly to elite fighters in De la Hoya and Floyd.

Also lost to some fringe contenders like Micky Ward or Ivan Robinson twice.

But Gatti should be in the Hall of fame, because he WAS famous, he was a guy who won 'fight of the year' award few times, and he was more popular than many elite fighters.

As for Barry McGuigan, he's a fighter who made a name on one elite win (Eusebio Pedroza) and he's in the HOF since 2005.

Moorer is better boxer than Gatti and McGuigan, so he has a claim to be elected in the HOF.

 

I feel to be deserving of the HOF, a fighter needs to have had a uniquely exceptional career and/or transcended the sport in some way. Moorer did neither.

 

It's completely beside the point, but I would argue that both McGuigan AND Gatti were more accomplished and frankly better than Moorer. By some margin, to be frank.

 

I'm sure they weren't better by any means, surely not Gatti who was beaten in his prime by fringe contenders and never beat top boxer in his division.

But yes, Gatti was more popular.

McGuigan was better boxer than Gatti, but better than Moorer? Don't think so.

 

In what way was Gatti more accomplished than Moorer?

 

Arturo Gatti was in some exciting fights. But he was also very inconsistent and as already mentioned dropped some losses to fighters who weren't world beaters. Moorer was beaten by two hall of fame heavyweights and two others who were at least contenders ( when he was past it. ) McGuigan had a great career but it was also short by comparison..

 

By beating better overall opposition in his career (Patterson, Ruelas, Ward)...........what's Moorer got on his ledger that's so impressive?

 

The IBHOF is becoming rather irrelevant now, more of a marketing gig than anything else. Virtually everybody entered into the Ring BHOF while Nat Fleischer was alive is in Canastota, showing his postmortem influence. Murderer's Row is getting in, a group essentially ignored by Fleischer.

However, standards, inclusiveness and political correctness have gone too far, and there are a number of inductees who themselves probably felt they did not merit entry. No way Ray Mancini belongs in there, yet he's far from the least qualified entree.

I tend to lean a little bit towards the Baseball HOF as a model for such recognition standards, but Canastota did have a late start. (Is Canastota as bad as the R & R HOF in Cleveland? I think it was Neil Young who suggested they should close it, that it was pretty well filled up.)

Getting so diluted as to become meaningless.