International Boxing Hall Announces Women Boxers to Be Inducted Into the Hall of Fame and Men’s Modern Era Boxers Change From 5-Years Requirement to 3 – Years
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The International Boxing Hall of Fame announced today the creation of categories for women boxers as well as additional changes to the process for electing inductees, including a three-year retirement for modern-era boxers. Amendments will take effect for the 2020 election process.
“After 30 years of honoring the best in the sport of boxing, the Hall of Fame’s goal is to maintain the process that bestows boxing’s highest honor to those who have excelled in the ‘sweet science,’” said Hall of Fame Executive Director Edward Brophy.
The amendments, which were approved by the International Boxing Hall of Fame Board of Directors in April, are the following:
New categories for Women boxers will be established. There will be two categories – Trailblazer and Modern. Trailblazer nominees are those boxers whose last contest came no later than 1988. The Hall of Fame will determine the number of honorees in the Trailblazer category at the start of the election process. The modern nominees are those boxers whose last contest came no earlier than 1989. All candidates in the Modern category must be retired for at least three (3) years prior to the end of the calendar year in which voting takes place, meaning that women boxers who last fought in 2016 are eligible for consideration. The Hall of Fame will determine the number of honorees in the Modern category at the start of the election process. In addition to the top vote recipients of the pre-determined number, starting in 2020, a candidate in the Modern category receiving 80% or higher of total votes cast will automatically gain enshrinement. An international panel of boxing historians will cast votes in both categories.
In the men’s Modern boxer category, the retirement requirement will change from five (5) years prior to the end of the calendar year in which voting takes place to three (3) years prior to the end of the calendar year in which voting takes place. With this change, boxers who last fought in 2015 and 2016 who were not yet eligible for inclusion on the ballot under previous protocol are now eligible for consideration for the Class of 2020. The Hall of Fame will continue to determine the number of honorees in the Modern category at the start of election process. In addition to the top vote recipients of the pre-determined number, starting in 2020, a candidate in the Modern category receiving 80% or higher of total votes cast will automatically gain enshrinement. Members of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an international panel of boxing historians from Japan, England, Canada, Italy, South Africa, Germany, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States are among those who cast votes in the Modern category.
In the Non-Participant (Those men and women who have made contributions to the sport apart from roles as boxers or observers. Based upon a candidate’s achievements and contributions in their particular field) and Observer (Those men and women who have made contributions as Print and Media Journalists, Publishers, Writers, Historians, Photographers, Artists and Screenwriters) categories, if a nominee has been on the ballot for at least 10 consecutive years and has not accumulated a sufficient number of votes for enshrinement, that nominee will be removed from the ballot. Following a one (1) year hiatus, the former nominee shall become eligible for future placement on the ballot. The Hall of Fame will continue to determine the number of honorees in the Non-Participant and Observer categories at the start of the election process. An international panel of boxing historians vote in both of these categories. For more information on the changes to the Non-Participant and Observer categories, please visit the Hall of Fame’s official website by clicking HERE.
Ballots will be distributed on October 1, 2019 and a news conference will be held in early December to announce results of the voting. Inductees will be named in the following categories: Modern, Old-Timer, Pioneer, Non-Participant and Observer; and, for the first time, women’s Modern and Trailblazer categories.
The 2020 Hall of Fame Induction Weekend will be held June 11-14 in Canastota, NY.
