Hall of Fame Criteria

Following various views on whether Gatti is HoF worthy, I stumbled across this article from www.badlefthook.com by the author Brickhaus (I hope this covers all plagiarism rules):

http://www.badlefthook.com/2010/12/7/1781756/should-boxing-hall-of-fame-voters-use-the-keltner-test

In short, 25 years ago a baseball statistics guy developed a set of objective criteria for baseball hall of fame inductions and named it the Keltner Test.

The author tinkered with the test to relate it to boxing and came up with the following criteria:

1- Was he ever regarded as the pound-for-pound best fighter in the sport? Did anybody, while he was active, ever suggest that he was the best active pro boxer?

2- Was he the best fighter in his weight class in his era?

3- Did he win any titles? Any true championships?

4- Was he good enough to continue fighting at a high level when he was past his prime?

5- Is he the very best player in boxing history who is not in the Hall of Fame?

6- Are most fighters who have comparable records (accounting for the level of opponent) in the Hall of Fame?

7- Does the fighter's record and level of opposition meet Hall of Fame standards?

8- Is there any evidence to suggest that the fighter was significantly better or worse than his record?

9- Is he the best fighter in his weight class who is eligible for the Hall of Fame but not in?

10- How many all time greats did he defeat? If none, how many times was he close? Were there mitigating circumstances in his era?

11- How many champions and top 10 fighters did he defeat? Did most of the other fighters who beat as many titlists and top 10 fighters go to the Hall of Fame?

12- Was the fighter ever considered to be one of the most exciting in the sport? Was he a major fan favorite?

13- What impact did the fighter have on boxing history? Did he change the sport in any way?

14- Did the fighter uphold the standards of sportsmanship and character worthy of the Hall of Fame?

On the above criteria, Gatti wouldn't make it in, however surely many who are already deducted wouldn't.

Two questions I have are:

1- Do you think HoF should have strict criteria which fighters have to meet to qualify for induction?

2- Who already inducted fails the above criteria?

VC, I'd like to refer you to one of the stickies on the 606 v2 Hall of Fame, which explains a lot about what quite a few of us feel about what should constitute a true H of F. You might even want to get involved in doing a bit of voting!

captain carrantuohil wrote:VC, I'd like to refer you to one of the stickies on the 606 v2 Hall of Fame, which explains a lot about what quite a few of us feel about what should constitute a true H of F. You might even want to get involved in doing a bit of voting!

Cheers Captain, admittedly I always scroll past the stickies without paying attention, my bad!

I do the same Valero.

So is the idea here that a guy has to meet all the criteria? Or is they meet something like two-thirds they're worthy?

licence_007 wrote:I do the same Valero.

So is the idea here that a guy has to meet all the criteria? Or is they meet something like two-thirds they're worthy?

It was more all the criteria, i.e. the "creme da la creme" of boxing. Just wondering if people think this should be required to stop less deserving folk in.

Personally I think to meet a certain amount i.e. two-thirds as you mention may be better as it would still warrant high praise.

I will scroll through the sticky thread latter as from a quick glimpse there are a huge amount of very in-depth posts on the matter!

Valero am not sure this criteria is right because this does set the bar ridiculously high. However I am certainly not qualified to come up with anything better. However do think it is long since time that the Hall wrote some criteria or published it, if they have not already because at the minute they are becoming something of a joke. Appreciate I sound like a stuck record with this but in the absence of a better example I cannot for the life of me work out how Barry Mcguigan gets in but thus far Naz or Don Curry have not had the nod.

Yeah, that's why I mentioned the 2/3s thing, rowley. It seems this HoF would be restricted to very, very few boxers.

rowley wrote:Valero am not sure this criteria is right because this does set the bar ridiculously high. However I am certainly not qualified to come up with anything better. However do think it is long since time that the Hall wrote some criteria or published it, if they have not already because at the minute they are becoming something of a joke. Appreciate I sound like a stuck record with this but in the absence of a better example I cannot for the life of me work out how Barry Mcguigan gets in but thus far Naz or Don Curry have not had the nod.

To be fair Rowley I think Barry gets in for his peace keeping work, Northern Ireland , IRA and the like but my knowledge on this matter is more than a bit hazy.....

As for Naz and Don Curry am not sure what impact they had outside of the sport that matches McGuigan. Naz clearly had a big impact on some poor sap he ran over but Don Curry??

He had an impact on TRUSSMAN.

Super D Boon wrote:

rowley wrote:Valero am not sure this criteria is right because this does set the bar ridiculously high. However I am certainly not qualified to come up with anything better. However do think it is long since time that the Hall wrote some criteria or published it, if they have not already because at the minute they are becoming something of a joke. Appreciate I sound like a stuck record with this but in the absence of a better example I cannot for the life of me work out how Barry Mcguigan gets in but thus far Naz or Don Curry have not had the nod.

To be fair Rowley I think Barry gets in for his peace keeping work, Northern Ireland , IRA and the like but my knowledge on this matter is more than a bit hazy.....

As for Naz and Don Curry am not sure what impact they had outside of the sport that matches McGuigan. Naz clearly had a big impact on some poor sap he ran over but Don Curry??

I think that's fairly accurate i.e. awarded because of matters outside of the ring, same as Stallone really?

Still, at least Stallone isn't in fighters category. Surely the Hall of Fame isn't a Nobel Peace Prize offshoot?

Rewarded for work outside the ring......ha ha....

Peter Buckley apparently stopped an old lady getting mugged once..

Bung him in..