Via Ken Hissner: This year’s event includes Thirty-six IBHOF participants held on June 12 in Canastota, New York, covering the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 as the reason for the number of participants of the century. record due to COVID-19.
2020 inductees include Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins, Juan “Dinamita” Manuel Marquez, “Sugar” Shane Mosley, Frank Erne, Paddy Ryan, Barbara “The Mighty Atom of the Ring” Buttrick, Christy “Coalminer’s Daughter” ” Martin, Lucia “The Dutch Terminator” Rijker, Lou DiBella, Kathy Duva, Dan Goossen, Bernard Fernandez and Thomas Hauser.
In 2021 featured artists include Wladimir “Dr. Steelhammer “Klitschko, Floyd“ Money ”Mayweather, Jr., Andre“ SOG ”Ward, Laila“ She Be Stingin ”Ali, Ann“ Brown Sugar”Wolfe, Marian“Lady Tyger”Trimiar,Jackie“The Female Ali”Tonawanda,Davey “Slash” Moore, Freddie Brown, Dr. Margaret Goodman, Jackie McCoy, George Kimball and Jay Larkin.
The 2022 cast includes Miguel “Junito” Cotto, Roy Jones, Jr., James “Lights Out” Toney, Regina Halmich, Holly “The Preacher’s Daughter” Holm, Bill Caplan, Ron Borges, Bob Yalen, Tod Morgan and Chuck Hull.
“The Hall of Fame is thrilled to welcome the newest Hall of Fame members and boxing fans around the world to celebrate the once-in-a-lifetime sweet science of it all,” said CEO. Hall of Fame executive, Ed Brophy said.
Members of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an international panel of boxing historians vote. Voters from Japan, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States will be participating in the election process.
Some of my favorites are being featured, and I’m sure some of our readers’ favorites. We will start with the class of 2020.
At the top of the list is someone born in Philadelphia Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkinswho has held all the middleweight belts starting with IBF in 1995. He won the WBC and WBA in 2001 and the WBO in 2004.
In 2008, Hopkins lost 44-0 to Joe Calzaghe, on his US debut, but returned in 2011 after drawing in 2010 with WBC heavyweight champion Jean Pascal to win that title. shows that Bernard is not too difficult to lose to Calzaghe. He ended his career 55-8-2 with 38 kills while living in Hockessin, Delaware.
4th World Champion Juan “Dinamita” Manuel Marquez, of Mexico City, Mexico, in 2003 won the IBF and WBA Featherweight titles, defeating fellow Mexican Manuel Medina, 60-12. In May 2004, in his first match against legend Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao, 38-2-1 ended in a draw. In September 2007, he won the Super Feather title by defeating Marco Antonio Barrera, 63-4.
A year later, Marquez lost a rematch with Pacquiao. In 2009, he lost to Floyd “Money” Mayweather, Jr., by a score of 39-0. Later that year, Marquez won the WBA Lightweight title, stopping Juan Diaz, 34-1. In his third fight with Pacquiao for the WBO belt, he lost again. Two fights later, in their fourth, in the most striking win of his career, Marquez would KO Pacquiao, 54-4-2. He would end his career 56-7-1 with 40 knockdowns.
“Sugar” Shane Mosley is a 3-division world champion who won the IBF Lightweight title in 1997, defeating Phillip Holiday 31-0. In 2000, he won the WBC Welter title, defeating Oscar De La Hoya, 32-1. In his next match, Mosley won the WBC Welter belt, stopping Antonio Diaz, with a score of 35-2. He finished 49-10-1 with 41 knockouts out of Pamona, California.
In what this writer considers the greatest female boxer of all time, Lucia “Dutch Terminator” Rijker won the IBO Super Lightweight title with a KO in the fifth round in 1998. The highlight of her career was defeating Jane Coch, 20-4, in 2003. She finished 17-0 with 14 knockout matches outside of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
In 2021, the group leaves their war-torn Ukraine, Wladimir “Dr. Steelhammer “Klitschko” 2000 won the WBO heavyweight belt defeating Chris Byrd, 31-1. In 2005, he regained the WBO belt by defeating Samuel Peter, 24-0. In 2007, in a rematch, he reversed a loss to Lamont Brewster, 33-3, stopping him in Germany. England finished with a score of 64-5 with 53 times knocking out Kyiv, Ukraine.
5th World Champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather, Jr., 1998, won the WBC Super Feather title by stopping Genaro Hernandez, 38-1-1. In 2002, he won another WBC Lightweight title when he defeated Jose Luis Castillo, 45-4-1, in what was possibly the most challenging match of his career. In the rematch, Mayweather made it clear, when he beat Castillo, he was the better of the two. In 2004, he promoted to win the WBC Light Welter belt, defeating DeMarcus Corley, 28-2-1. In 2006, he won the IBF Welter title defeating Zab Judah, 34-3.
Mayweather beat three 2022 grudges in 2009, Juan Manuel Marquez, 50-4-1, and in 2010 beat Shane Mosley, 46-5, and Miguel Cotto, 37-2, to claim the title. WBA Super Welter. In 2013, in a match in which the writer was eliminated, he won a majority decision against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, 42-0-1. In the next game, he had what should have been one of his toughest games, barely beating what I think was a Marcos Maidana draw, 35-3.
In the rematch, he made it clear that he was the better one. In 2015, he marked Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record when he beat Andre Berto, 30-3. Two years later, for some reason, to break the record, he fought MMA fighter Conor McGregor, 0-0, stopping him in 10th place. He fought out of Las Vegas, Nevada.
2004 Olympic gold medalist and 2nd world champion Andre “SOG” Ward won the 2009 WBA Super Middle title, defeating Mikkel Kessler, 42-1. In 2016, he barely won what I consider the gift of deciding by one point on all the scoreboards ahead of WBO champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev, 30-0-1, stopping him in the rematch in the final match of his career in five innings. England finished 32-0 with 16 knockouts out of Oakland, California.
In the group of 2022 is the 4th world champion Miguel “Junito” Cotto, of Caguas, Puerto Rico, who won the 2004 WBO Super Welter title, stopping Kelson Pinto, with a score of 21-0. In 2006, he got another WBA Welter title stopping Carlos Quintana, 23-0. In 2010, Cotto won the WBA Super Welter title, stopping Yuri Foreman with a score of 28-0. He would lose to Floyd Mayweather and Saul Alvarez but in the middle was beaten by Sergio Martinez, 51-2-2, who came on with a bad knee being stopped in the tenth round. Cotto finished 41-6 with 33 knockouts.
4th World Champion Roy Jones, Jr., in 1993, won the IBF Middleweight belt defeating Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins, 22-1. In 1994, he added the IBF Super Middle title, defeating James “Lights Out” Toney, 44-0-2. In 1996, he won the third division championship, defeating Michael “Body Snatcher” McCallum, 49-3-1. In the next game, he knocked out Montell Griffin 26-0, but managed to knock him out as he was collapsing, lost to DQ. In the rematch, he knocked out Griffin in the first round.
In 2003, Jones won the WBA Heavyweight title, defeating John Ruiz, 38-4-1. He ended his career 66-9 with 47 kills in Pensacola, Florida.
The boxer with the most title defenses at the age of 44 is Regina Halmich, 3-division world champion, who in 1995, in an IBF Flyweight bout, lost his only match and America’s only match to Yvonne Trevino. She won the WIBF Flyweight belt in 1995. In 1996, she won the WIBF Super Fly belt by majority decision against Delia Gonzalez, 11-4-3.
In 1998, she added the WIBF Light Flyweight title in a rematch with Gonzales. If there’s been one flaw in her career, she’s won against opponents with lousy records, if any. In 2004, she was held to a draw by Elena Reid, 14-1-4, of America. She only played against Germany twice. She finished her career 54-1-1, with a 16-time knockout of Karlsruhe, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.
