Hatton, Corrales, Moorer, Calderon elected to Hall of Fame

Adams, Kallen, Sternburg, Charles, Matthews, Couch, Torres also get the Hall call

Dan Rafael

Dec 07, 2023

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Modern Men

Ricky Hatton

Hatton, who boxed from 1997 to 2012, won the lineal/IBF junior welterweight title, the WBA welterweight belt and during his prime was high on most pound-for-pound lists.

He was also one of the most popular fighters ever, bringing tens of thousands of his loyal British fans across the pond for major fights in Las Vegas as they serenaded him constantly with “there’s only one Ricky Hatton!” to the tune of “Winter Wonderland.”

“You never think of when you lace the gloves on at 10 years old that you’ll end up in the Hall of Fame with some of the great fighters already there,” Hatton said. “I’m a bit speechless. There’s no greater honor. I’m delighted.”

The always aggressive Hatton (45-3, 32 KOs) held the lineal junior welterweight title from 2005 to 2009, commencing his reign in front of his passionate fans in Manchester, England, with an upset 11th-round stoppage of Hall of Famer Kostya Tszyu that also gave him the IBF belt. Hatton unified with WBA titlist Carlos Maussa in his next fight, a pair of wins that earned him consensus fighter of the year honors in 2005.

He then jumped up to welterweight and narrowly outpointed Luis Collazo to win the WBA title via disputed decision. He would return 140 pounds to notch defenses against then-unbeaten Juan Urango to win back the IBF title and blasted out Jose Luis Castillo with a body shot. At that point, the biggest fight in boxing was Hatton moving back up to welterweight to challenge lineal/WBC champion Floyd Mayweather in 2007 one of the biggest fights of the decade.

After getting stopped in the 10th round, Hatton returned to junior welterweight and overall wound up making five lineal defenses before another absolutely mega fight against Manny Pacquiao, who badly knocked him out in the second round to seize the title. He would fight once more and lose 3½ years later but during Hatton’s heyday he was a dominant lineal champion with a massive fan base.

To see how I voted in each category click here for part 1

To see how I voted in each category click here for part 2

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Diego Corrales

Corrales, who won titles at junior lightweight and lightweight, boxed from 1996 to 2007 and was involved in several memorable fights, but none more so than on May 7, 2005 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, where he faced Jose Luis Castillo in their first fight to unify lightweight titles and for lineal status.

Expectations were for an action-packed fight but by the time it was over they had delivered perhaps the greatest action battle in history even before Corrales made an epic 10th-round comeback from two knockdowns for the stoppage win is one of the most dramatic moments in sports history.

Corrales (40-5, 33 KOs), who possessed tremendous punching power, a pure warrior mentality and delivered A+ entertainment value, knocked out Roberto Garcia (yes, the trainer) to win his first world title at 130 pounds in 1999 and knocked out Derrick Gainer and Angel Manfredy in defenses before suffering his first loss via 10th-round knockout to Hall of Famer Floyd Mayweather.

From 2004 to 2005, Corrales had as good of a three-fight run as anyone could have had in that era. He avenged a loss to loss Joel Casamayor, who he wound up going 1-2 against, by split decision to win a vacant junior lightweight title; moved up to lightweight and knocked out Acelino “Popo” Freitas to take his lightweight title and undefeated record; and then stopped Castillo in their legendary war.

Sadly, it was Corrales’ final victory as he would lose his final three fights — including by fourth-round knockout to an overweight Castillo in an immediate rematch — and then die tragically in a drunken motorcycle crash in Las Vegas in 2007, two years to the day and just a few miles from where he scored the glorious victory over Castillo.

Michael Moorer

Moorer (52-4-1, 40 KOs), who boxed from 1988 to 2008, made history as the first southpaw heavyweight champion when he won a majority decision over Evander Holyfield to win the unified and lineal title in 1994 with HOF trainer Teddy Atlas, although in his first defense he would famously dominate George Foreman before getting knocked out in the 10th round as Foreman became the oldest champion in history at age 45.

Two fights later Moorer regained the IBF title by decision over Axel Schultz in 1996, made two defenses and then suffered an eighth-round knockout loss to Holyfield in a 1997 rematch.

Moorer originally trained under the late HOFer Emanuel Steward at his Kronk Gym in Detroit and won his first 26 fights by knockout, including winning the inaugural WBO light heavyweight title (at a time when few regarded the WBO as a major belt). He defended it nine times before moving up to heavyweight and winning the vacant WBO belt by knocking out Bert Cooper in the fifth round of a memorable shootout.

“I appreciate this very much,” Moorer said. “The Hall of Fame wall is the wall of the elite and I am so happy to be inducted alongside some of my favorite boxers like Salvador Sanchez, Alexis Arguello and Marvelous Marvin Hagler. I made it to the elite.”

Ivan Calderon

After representing Puerto Rico in the 2000 Olympics, “Iron Boy” Calderon (35-3-1, 6 KOs) boxed professionally from 2001 to 2012 and won titles at strawweight and junior flyweight.

He was a 5-foot southpaw with virtually no punching power, but he became a regular on the pound-for-pound list as a virtuoso technician. He was gifted defensively and regarded by many as the best strawweight ever not named Ricardo Lopez or Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez.

During his 2003 to 2007 strawweight title reign he made 12 defenses and rarely lost rounds while beating several top contenders and former or future titleholders, including Nelson Dieppa, Daniel Reyes, Isaac Bustos, Hugo Cazares (twice) and Rodel Mayol (to avenge a technical draw).

In his first fight after moving up to junior flyweight he won a world title against Cazares and successfully defended it six times.

His only losses came at the end of his career when he dropped three of his final four bouts, twice by knockout to the much bigger, more powerful and prime Giovani Segura in a junior flyweight unification fight and an immediate rematch, and in an attempt to regain his old strawweight title against the late Moises Fuentes.

“This is something great, a dream come true,” Calderon said. “I dreamed to be a boxer. I dreamed to be a world champion. I especially dreamed to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. And now I’ve got everything.”

Modern women

England’s Couch (28-11, 9 KOs), who boxed from 1994 to 2007, became interested in boxing after a documentary on women’s boxing and picked up the sport at age 26. Boxing for women was illegal in the United Kingdom when she began, but after being denied a license by the British Boxing Board of Control, she filed a lawsuit, claiming sexual discrimination. In the landmark ruling in 1998, Couch won the right for women to box professionally in the U.K. and that year became the first female boxer to legally enter a U.K. ring when she stopped Simona Lukic in the second round.

“I’m in shock over this news,” said Couch, who boxed mainly a junior welterweight won various titles. “I’m so excited and cannot wait to get to Canastota and meet everyone during the induction weekend.”

Mexico’s Torres (28-3-3, 16 KOs) was a two-time WBC junior bantamweight titleholder, outpointing Dahianna Santana to win it for the first time in 2007 and regained it via fourth-round knockout of Paulina Cardona in 2009. She made 10 defenses in her second reign and retired in 2012.

“It is a great honor to be in the International Boxing Hall of Fame with great champions,” Torres said. “I have taken this great news as another championship.”

Non-participants

Adams, 83, a U.S. Army veteran, worked with 26 world champions, including Corrales, Kennedy McKinney, Johnny Tapia, Freddie Norwood, Vince Phillips, Frankie Liles, and Nonito Donaire.

Here’s an incredible statistic: Adams once cornered 22 consecutive world title fights without a loss.

His vast experience and accomplishment was not limited only to professional boxing. He was the head coach of 1988 U.S. Olympic boxing team — the first Black trainer to have that role — that won eight medals, including three gold and counted Hall of Famers Riddick Bowe, Roy Jones Jr. and Michael Carbajal as well as Ray Mercer and McKinney as members. Adams also was assistant coach of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team that won 11 medals, including nine gold. Adams moved to Las Vegas in 1989 and began training pros.

“This feels great to get this news. I can now say that I’ve reached the highest point in the sport of boxing,” Adams said.

Kallen, best known for managing Hall of Famer James Toney, is the first female manager to be elected. Her introduction to boxing was in 1978 as a publicist for Detroit’s famed Kronk Boxing Club, where she worked with Thomas Hearns, Milton McCrory, Hilmer Kenty and others. She began managing fighters in 1988 and guided Toney to two world titles. She also managed titleholders Bronco McKart and Tom “Boom Boom” Johnson and starred in the first season of “The Contender.”

“I’m so happy I could cry,” said Kallen, who was on the ballot for the first time. “I’ve wanted this for so long. I am so elated. To be recognized for my 45 years in the sport is amazing and I’m so appreciative.”

Sternburg, who is from Washington, D.C., and now lives in Denver, was also appearing on the ballot for the first time. He is the ninth publicist elected.

Sternburg, who founded Sternburg Communications in 2002, remains one of the top publicists in the sport, is best known as the longtime PR man for Manny Pacquiao, whose inspiring story he helped share with the world, and his HOF trainer Freddie Roach. But Sternberg, the winner of the 2004 Marvin Kohn Good Guy Award from the BWAA, also has done PR for many others, including Gennadiy Golovkin, Shane Mosley, Winky Wright and David Tua.

He got his start working for PR legend Charlie Brotman’s firm in Washington, D.C., where he helped in media relations for Sugar Ray Leonard and early Riddick Bowe fights. He would go on to head communications for America Presents and Gary Shaw Productions and also had a long stint with Top Rank.

“Working in boxing has been such great fun,” Sternburg said. “I have had the good fortune to work with some very remarkable people, including world champions and contenders, promoters, managers, and television executives, trainers and fellow public relations practitioners, all who were generous with their time and taught me so much. Inside the International Boxing Hall of Fame, there are plaques dedicated to boxing legends of all generations. It is a privilege to join them.”

Observers

Charles earned fame as a national sportscaster on CNN as the co-host of “Sports Tonight,” where he also covered major fights regularly. He was at CNN until 2001 when Showtime hired him as the blow-by-blow announcer for the new series “ShoBox: The New Generation,” where he partnered with close friend, analyst and 2017 Hall of Famer inductee Steve Farhood. Charles, a beloved figure, remained in the role until leaving the air due to a bladder cancer diagnosis in 2009. He died in 2011.

Besides Charles’ run at Showtime, he also hosted HBO pay-per-view broadcasts in the early 1990s. He won the Sam Taub Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism in 2007 from the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Matthews, who was an amateur boxer in New York, began covering boxing in 1983 for Newsday and would go on to write about boxing and other sports as a columnist for several publications. But he was closely identified as a boxing writer covering major fights for from the 1980s on, including the rise and fall of Mike Tyson. Matthews also was the ringside reporter for NBC at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics and had stints as an on Showtime and CBS, among other outlets. From 1989-1993 he was the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America and, in 1994, was awarded the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism by the BWAA.

Old-timers

Argentina’s Firpo, known as “The Wild Bull of the Pampas,” turned pro in 1917 and in 1920 won the South American heavyweight title and in 1923 challenged world champion and Hall of Famer Jack Dempsey before 80,000 at the Polo Grounds in New York, in one of the most dramatic fights in history.

Dempsey dropped Firpo seven times in the first round and Firpo sent him through the ropes to nearly win the title. In the second round, Dempsey dropped Firpo twice more for the knockout to retain the title. Firpo (31-4, 26 KOs) boxed until 1926 and then returned after a 10-year retirement for three bouts in 1936. He died in 1960 at age 64. A statue of him was erected in Buenos Aires after his death and “Boxing Day” in Argentina is Sept. 14, commemorating the date of his wild battle with Dempsey.

Women’s trailblazer

Known as “Princess Red Star,” Kibby, a welterweight from Tollhouse, California, began boxing at 10, turned pro in 1976 when the California State Athletic Commission began granting licenses to women. She faced Diane Syverson three times and their second fight was televised live and was the first female bout at the famed Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Kibby (10-3-4, 3 KOs) retired in 1977 and died in 2021 at age 68.

For information on events planned for Induction Weekend call 315-697-7095 or visit www.ibhof.com.

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