Class of 2024 Part 1: How I voted for the International Boxing HOF
I am a longtime elector and this year cast ballots in four categories: modern men, modern women, non-participants and observers
A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.
For more than 20 years I have had the privilege of voting for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. I grew up only about 90 minutes from Canastota, New York, site of the HOF, and have visited the museum many times beginning when I was in high school and college.
When I had my first newspaper job in the early 1990s I would often have to drive to places like Syracuse or Rochester to cover a high school state playoff game in whatever sports season was going on and I would often build time into my travel schedule and stop at the HOF, which is right off the highway, to look around for a bit.
So to now be an elector all these years later, I consider it a tremendous honor and I look forward to receiving the ballots each fall. I also dread it.
It’s an honor because I get to be a small part of shaping the history of the great sport of boxing with my votes. But it is also a thankless task because there are more worthy candidates than we are allowed to vote for and even fewer are elected. But I do the best that I can. I take it seriously. I do my homework. I review the candidates’ resumes. I also go by my own decades of experience covering boxing and knowing most of the people I vote for.
I sent my ballots back before the Oct. 31 deadline and on Thursday the results of the election for the class of 2024 will be revealed. The induction ceremonies will take place at the museum on June 9 during the annual HOF induction weekend. It is an event that should be on the bucket list of every boxing fan.
The voting is over, so now I will reveal how I voted in each of the four categories I participated in this year. I will cover the first two categories — modern men and modern women — in today’s part 1. See below for my detailed explanation of my votes, others I considered and photos of my official ballots.
Modern men
There were 42 names on the ballot this year, including the three newcomers — former lightweight titlist Artur Grigorian, former two-time bantamweight titleholder Veeraphol Sahaprom and former bantamweight titlist Shinsuke Yamanaka. They replaced the three who came off the ballot after being elected last year: Timothy Bradley Jr., Carl Froch and Rafael Marquez (all of whom I voted for).
I wanted to vote for about 10 candidates, but we are only allowed to vote for five. And even voting for five, only three are elected (or anyone who receives more than 80 percent of the roughly 200 votes).
When it came to the three newcomers, I did not feel like any of them had the sort of career where they were automatic first-ballot guys. So, I didn’t vote for any of them, although each has a case to be made. What that meant was that this was a year, like last year, where I think three of the holdovers will get in.
I cast all five of my allowable votes for holdovers from past years. I covered all five of the fighters I voted for, most of them extensively. I know how worthy they are of being elected. Here is how I voted (alphabetically):
Please upgrade to a paid subscription for full access to the rest of this post and all posts and comments — and also help support independent journalism