Napoles would win as he was a better fighter. DeJesus belongs in the IBHOF, though. He would have stopped Arturo Gatti and beaten Ray Mancini as well and both of them are in.
There's a shitload of guys who belong in the Hall who haven't made it (most never will, sadly) but from the 70s... DeJesus , Ernesto Marcel, and Rodrigo Valdez are the three most deserving guys who should be in.
I find it really weird that DeJesus never got in, considering he's the only man to hand lightweight Duran a loss. It MUST be his murder charge, I can't think of any other reason. But then Monzon got in w/a murder charge...
I think that would be a nearly unanimous opinion among boxing fans. With that said i don't think it's going to improve if we just take whoever is considered the worst fighter in the hall and saying everybody better than that guy now automatically belongs.
Nope, I don't buy that at all.They - the voters - started this and they are going to live and suffer the consequences of their actions. Yes you can indeed say if Gatti got in, then this fighter should get in.
The voters - the large majority who are not qualified - lowered the standards with McGuigan, Johansson, Gatti and Mancini. They opened the floodgates. Only The Best of The Best should be in and many do not belong in that category.
Guys like Dejesus were deserving before Gatti was inducted, it's not all about him. If the future standard is only to compare favorably with Gatti it's certainly not going to improve.
That doesn't matter - again: the voters started this, no one else. Standards have been lowered - now guys like Jim Watt, Alfredo Escalera, Tyrone Everett, Bennie Briscoe and Sean O'Grady should be voted in according to the new standards established by the IBHOF.
And how many others? Are we going to have 1200 inductees at the next event? Hold it over the course of four months? That's obviously not going to happen.
If I'm being optimistic, at least the last two years were "ok." Jackson, and Curry were both long overdue and I'm glad they finally put them in. Hopkins, Marquez, and Mosley were no brainers. Who's even eligible next year? Is next year when Roy, Floyd, and Ward are eligible? Cause if so, those are gonna be the easy three choices.
Well you see because the standard has been lowered everything is now under review and they will have to wait. Boxing historians have been busy pouring over all of the data to find fighters who are more deserving than Arturo Gatti to be honored first.
You could legit remove half the guys in there if you wanted to be really selective Nobes has the right idea— better to think of it as a cool museum than as some sort of quality arbiter of greatness
