Class of 2025 Part 1: How I voted for the International Boxing HOF
I'm a longtime elector and this year cast ballots in 5 categories: modern men, modern women, non-participants, observers and old timers
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For more than 20 years I have enjoyed the great privilege of voting for the International Boxing Hall of Fame in various categories. I grew up 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 as a sportswriter 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 spend some time at the museum.
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, to which I have dedicated almost all of my professional life, with my votes. But it is also a thankless task because hard choices must be made. Sometimes there are more worthy candidates than we are allowed to vote for and even fewer are elected.
I do the best that I can. I take it seriously. I do my homework. I review the candidates’ resumes. I sometimes seek opinions from those in the sport I respect. And I 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 2025 will be announced. Induction weekend will take place June 5 to June 8 with the induction ceremonies taking place June 8 at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York, which is about a 10-minute ride from the Hall of Fame grounds in Canastota. HOF weekend is a blast and a must-do event that every fight fan should put on their bucket list.
With the voting over, I will now reveal how I voted in each of the five 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 four newcomers — all-time legend and eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao, two-time welterweight titlist Shawn Porter, four-division titlist Mikey Garcia and former super middleweight titlist Lucian Bute. They replaced the four who came off the ballot after being elected last year: Ricky Hatton, the late Diego Corrales, Michael Moorer and Ivan Calderon.
There were about a dozen candidates I thought about voting for, some more than others, but electors 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 four newcomers, Pacquiao was the one slam-dunk, no doubt about it, didn’t even have to study the resume for two seconds to give him my vote. If you are an elector and did not vote for Pacquiao, your voting rights should be revoked.
As for Porter, Garcia and Bute — all of whom I covered extensively — they were all very good and significant fighters in their heyday. That said, to me, all three fall short of my vote. There was just not enough meat on the bone for any of them, so I did not check any of their names. It doesn’t mean I don’t have ample respect for their accomplishments.
I cast all five of my allowable votes, one for Pacquiao and four for holdovers from past years. Each is worthy of being elected based on what they did in the ring. Here is how I voted (alphabetically):
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