Bradley, Froch, Marquez elected to HOF in modern men's category
Jacobs, Goodman, Goossen, Abraham, Ryan, Serrano, Ashley, Fox, Kingpetch, Hagen also get Hall call
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Two-division world champions Timothy Bradley Jr. and Rafael Marquez and former super middleweight champion Carl Froch have each gotten the Hall call.
All three holdovers on the modern men’s ballot were elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in results announced on Wednesday.
Ten others were also elected in five other categories in voting done by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America and a panel of international historians. They will be enshrined at the Hall of Fame museum in Canastota, New York, at the conclusion of the annual induction weekend on June 11.
Also elected were Alicia Ashley and Laura Serrano in the modern women’s category; Top Rank matchmaker Brad “Abdul” Goodman, Top Rank chief operating officer Brad Jacobs and trainer Joe Goossen in the non-participant category and former longtime HBO executive Seth Abraham and CBS broadcaster Tim Ryan in the observer category. Tiger Jack Fox and Pone Kingpetch (old-timers) and JoAnn Hagen (women’s trailblazer) were elected posthumously.
Modern Men
Bradley (33-2-1, 13 KOs), who boxed from 2004 to 2016, won titles at welterweight and junior welterweight and had many big fights.
“This is one of the greatest days of my life,” Bradley said. “I appreciate this so much. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I’m ecstatic and don’t really know what to say. This is everything I wanted and everything I worked for. I’m full of emotions and there are so many things going through my mind from my past that got me to this point. This is a dream come true. This is my heaven, the International Boxing Hall of Fame.”
His most famous win came was when he claimed the WBO welterweight title by spit decision over Manny Pacquiao in 2012 that was one of the most controversial decisions in boxing history. But even if that result is discounted, Bradley’s resume was tremendous.
He outpointed Hall of Famer Juan Manuel Marquez in a great performance to retain his welterweight title and also retained it by decision against Ruslan Provodnikov in the sensational 2013 fight of the year and one of the great fights so far of this century.
As a junior welterweight, Bradley twice unified 140-pound titles with surprising ease against Devon Alexander in a 1 vs. 2 matchup in the division when they were both undefeated, and Kendall Holt. Among his junior welterweight defenses was a knockout of former two-division champion Joel Casamayor (who was on the ballot) and a near-shutout of the prime undefeated Lamont Peterson, who went on to win titles at junior welterweight and welterweight.
Bradley’s only official losses were in his second and third fights with Pacquiao, after which he retired. He now works as an analyst on the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN series.
England’s Froch (33-2, 24 KOs), who was active from 2002 to 2014, was brash and backed it up by never ducking a top opponent and becoming a three-time super middleweight titleholder.
From 2008 until his retirement in 2014, a stretch of 12 fights (in which he went 10-2), he faced top opponents in 11.
“It’s amazing to be inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside so many legends of the sport,” Froch said. “Boxing is the best sport in the world. It tests everything in a man and a woman. The mentality, discipline, grit, determination, heart, desire, everything is all in that ring and it is just you on your own with your opponent. For me to be inducted with the greatest of all time from every weight division is just fantastic! I’m grateful to be recognized.”
He won his first world title against Jean Pascal, handing him his first loss, before Pascal would go on to become light heavyweight champion. In his first defense, Froch traveled to the United States to defend against former undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor and rallied from a knockdown and deficit on the scorecards for a dramatic 12th-round knockout with 14 seconds left.
During the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament Showtime put on, Froch defeated Andre Dirrell, Arthur Abraham and Glen Johnson. He lost a disputed decision to Mikkel Kessler and then to Andre Ward in a unification fight in the final but Froch would go on to avenge the loss to Kessler to unify titles. He also scored an upset knocked out of then-undefeated long-reigning titlist Lucian Bute in a supreme performance.
In Froch’s final two fights, he knocked out then-undefeated countryman George Groves to retain his title, including in a mega fight immediate rematch before 80,000 at Wembley Stadium.
Mexico’s Marquez (41-9, 37 KOs), the former bantamweight and junior featherweight champion, who boxed from 1995 to 2013, joins his older brother Juan Manuel Marquez and longtime trainer Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain in the Hall of Fame.
“I don’t have the words to describe how I feel receiving this great news,” Marquez said. “I am very happy. It is a great honor to be in the Hall of Fame and I am very proud to be in Canastota with the greatest boxers of all time.”
He is a rare Hall of Famer to have lost his professional debut, but went on to twice defeat Hall of Famer Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson before becoming a dominant bantamweight champion. He dethroned long-reigning bantamweight titlist Tim Austin by knockout in 2003 and made seven defenses before moving up to junior featherweight, where he engaged in a thrilling and dramatic four-fight series with Israel Vazquez, who was on the HOF ballot.
They spit the four fights with the first three among the all-time greatest action fights. Marquez knocked out Vazquez in the first fight to win the junior featherweight title and in the fourth fight at featherweight. He lost the rematch (by knockout) and the third fight (by disputed split decision) but those junior featherweight title fights were the fight of the year for 2007 and 2008. The first fight likely would have been the 2007 fight of the year but it took place in the same year as the rematch.
Modern women
Ashley (24-12-1, 4 KOs), of Jamaica, boxed from 1999 to 2018 and won titles at junior featherweight. She lost an eight-rounder in her fourth fight to Serrano, who joins her in the Class of 2023.
“It is such an honor to be among the history of boxing and being there with the females that I absolutely admire as well,” Ashley said. “I’m totally ecstatic and speechless.”
Serrano (17-5-3, 6 KOs), a Mexican southpaw, fought from 1994 to 2012. Though she never won a world title she faced a who’s who of her day, including a draw in her pro debut against Hall of Famer Christy Martin and wins over Deirdre Gogarty, Layla McCarter, Tracy Byrd (twice) and Isra Girgrah.
“I dedicated my whole life to boxing and I did my best in those days when it was very difficult for women to fight especially in my country of Mexico, where I fought for women’s rights,” Serrano said. “I’m so happy. I’m thankful for all of the members of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.”
Non-participants
Goodman began his stint in boxing in 1983 as a summer employee at Top Rank’s New York offices. He moved to Las Vegas to join Top Rank in 1999 and became a full-time matchmaker for the company in 2004.
Learning under his boss, Hall of Famer Bruce Trampler, Goodman has been integral in developing more than 50 Top Rank fighters into world champions, many either from their pro debuts or very early in the careers, including Miguel Cotto, Kelly Pavlik, Ivan Calderon, Mikey Garcia, Terence Crawford, Vasiliy Lomachenko, Shakur Stevenson, Oscar Valdez, Teofimo Lopez, Jose Ramirez, Brandon Rios, Mike Alvarado, Juan Manuel Lopez, Steven Luevano and Mikaela Mayer.
“It’s the greatest news I’ve heard and it means the world to me,” Goodman said. “My goal and what I’ve worked for is to build champions and, to me, to be elected into the International Boxing Hall of Fame for this work is the biggest honor.”
Jacobs, who was elected in his first year on the ballot, has worked in boxing since 1981 and been the Top Rank COO since 2010, bolstering the company's global footprint while overseeing the operations of dozens of events annually. In 2020, during the depths of the coronavirus pandemic, Jacobs was the architect of the protocols that allowed Top Rank to be the first promoter to bring boxing back with two shows per week on ESPN from a bubble environment at the MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas. His handbook served as the blueprint for other companies when they began putting on fights again with their network partners.
Jacobs began as the general manager of Alessi Promotions and helped guide the career of middleweight contender John “The Beast” Mugabi before moving on to a 12-year run in charge of USA Network’s “Tuesday Night Fights.” And from 2000 to 2006, he was the point person for then-pound-for-pound king Roy Jones Jr.’s business.
“I’ve been in this business my entire professional life, and it is just an incredible honor to be voted in by my peers for the years I’ve spent in the business and hopefully with many more to come,” Jacobs said. “It is a crazy business, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The election of Goodman and Jacobs adds two more Top Rank people to the Hall as they join chairman Bob Arum (1999), publicists Irving Rudd (1999) and Lee Samuels (2019) and Trampler (2010).
Goossen, who was also on the ballot for the first time, has been an elite trainer for decades and joins his brother, the late, great promoter Dan Goossen, who was inducted posthumously in 2020.
“To think I’ll be in the Hall of Fame with my brother Dan is probably the best thing I’ve heard since he died,” Goossen said. “When I got into the sport back in 1970, I would have never thought in 10 million years that I would really make a mark and eventually end up in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. I’m shocked and honored.”
He first gained notice in the 1980s developing brothers Gabriel and Rafael Ruelas from their pro debuts to world champions out of his Southern California gym.
He was famously in the corner for Diego Corrales’ miracle 10th-round comeback when he got up from two knockdowns earlier in the round to stop Jose Luis Castillo in their legendary 2005 lightweight title unification fight many regard as the greatest fight in boxing history.
Goossen also has trained top fighters such as Joel Casamayor, Michael Nunn, Shane Mosley, Robert Guerrero, Chris Arreola, John Molina, Sergey Lipinets, Amir Khan and Riddick Bowe and currently is the trainer of junior welterweight star Ryan Garcia.
Observers
Abraham was the longtime president of HBO Sports during its 1980s and 1990s heyday, when he presided over the biggest budget in the sport and had the final say on which fighters and fights the network backed.
He had his hand in making deals for countless big fights, including both Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield undisputed heavyweight championship fights and the Felix Trinidad-De La Hoya welterweight unification fight.
It was also Abraham’s call to approve George Foreman’s opportunity to challenge Michael Moorer for the heavyweight title on the network in 1994 and Big George made him look good by pulling the upset knockout to regain the title and become the oldest fighter to win a world title.
“This is a great honor, but the accolade really belongs to HBO Sports,” said Abraham, who won the Sam Taub broadcast award from the BWAA in 2014. “I have always believed that HBO's undisputed crown as ‘The Network of Champions’ was earned by many. And many are deservedly in the Hall of Fame. Larry Merchant, Jim Lampley, Lou DiBella, George Foreman, Emanuel Steward, Harold Lederman, Roy Jones Jr., Lennox Lewis, Sugar Ray Leonard, Bert Sugar. I hope in the years ahead other deserving HBOers join this esteemed company. For now, I am thrilled to be in this fabled House of the sweet science.”
Ryan was the blow-by-blow voice of boxing on CBS in the 1970s and 1980s working alongside partner and Hall of Famer Gil Clancy.
Canada’s Ryan called more than 300 world title from around the world, including Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier I (for Armed Forces Radio), Alexis Arguello-Aaron Pryor I, Sugar Ray Leonard–Thomas Hearns I and II, Sugar Leonard–Marvin Hagler, Riddick Bowe-Evander Holyfield II and James Scott's fights in Rahway Prison.
“This is a real thrill for me to join Gil Clancy in the Hall of Fame and I’m glad that the sport of boxing still has worldwide popularity as it did during my tenure with Gil,” Ryan said.
Old-timers
Fox was 160-23-10 with two no contests and 109 knockouts in a career that began either in 1928 or 1932 (early records are incomplete and sources vary). He was 1-1-1 against Hall of Fame light heavyweight champion Maxie Rosenbloom and twice defeated future heavyweight champion Jersey Joe Walcott.
In 1939, Fox, who died at age 47 in 1954, got a light heavyweight title shot, the only one of his career, and to lost Melio Bettina by ninth-round knockout at New York’s Madison Square Garden — three months after being stabbed in an altercation but not postponing.
Three-time flyweight champion Kingpetch (28-7, 9 KOs), who boxed from 1954 to 1966, is the second Hall of Famer from Thailand, joining junior bantamweight champion Khaosai Galaxy.
Kingpetch, who died in 1982 at age 47, became Thailand's first world champion by defeating Pascual Perez via 15-round decision in 1960 and defended three times, including in a knockout of Perez in Los Angeles in his only American fight. He lost the title to Hall of Famer Fighting Harada by knockout in 1962 and became the first boxer to regain the flyweight title when he outpointed Harada in a 1963 rematch. He became the first three-time flyweight champion when he lost and regained the belt in two fights with Hiroyuki Ebihara in 1963 and 1964.
Women’s trailblazer
Long before women’s boxing was mainstream, Hagen, who died at age 73 in 2004, competed in the 1940s until retiring in 1956, mainly in the Midwest. The South Bend, Indiana, product was the only opponent to defeat Hall of Famer Barbara Buttrick via eight-round decision in 1954 in Calgary, Canada, in the first women’s bout to be broadcast over the radio.
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