Arturo Gatti.
His name, along with his epic trilogy with Mickey Ward and countless other exciting moments throughout his career, send chills down your spine.
But didn’t his induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame just leave a bad taste in your mouth?
Well it should have.
Gatti was exciting, sure. But with a core group of top wins being some assortment of Micky Ward, Tracy Harris Patterson and Leo Dorin—that’s just not going to cut it for me. And it shouldn’t for you, either.
But, at the same time, it didn’t the least surprise me—seeing as how many great fighters weren’t in the Hall of Fame already.
The Hall of Fame is a joke. It was a joke even before they inducted Sylvester Stallone into it.
Yes, Stallone—the actor.
But that’s just what it is. It’s the Hall of Fame. So I wouldn’t expect anything else.
So this slideshow goes out to those fighters that history has forgotten.
To the neglected, to the ignored and to the disregarded. This goes out to the overlooked, the shoved aside, the written-off—those more-than-worthy combatants’ legacies, consigned to oblivion.
I’m not saying these men belong in the IBHOF—because, frankly, an induction wouldn’t do them justice. What I am saying, however—is they’re indisputably greater than one Arturo “Thunder” Gatti, that's for sure.
These are the greatest boxers not in the Hall of Fame.
My only regret is I could not fit them all.
Begin Slideshow
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