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Nick Parkinson
The International Boxing Hall of Fame inducts the class of 2024 this weekend in Canastota, New York, and some big names are on the list.
The Boxing Writers Association of America and an international panel of boxing historians voted in the latest crop of champions, inside and outside the ring, to join the greatest names in boxing history.
Boxers Ricky Hatton, Michael Moorer, Ana Maria Torres, Jane Couch, Ivan Calderon and the late Diego Corrales will be inducted into the Modern Boxers category.
Boxing writer Wallace Matthews and sportscaster Nick Charles will enter in the Observer category. Trainer Kenny Adams, publicist Fred Sternburg and publicist and manager Jackie Kallen join in the Non-Participant category. Boxer Luis Angel Firpo will enter in the Old Timer category and Teresa Kibby joins in the Women Trailblazer category.
Here’s a look at each inductee in the Modern Boxers category and what makes them so special.
Diego Corrales
“Chico” Corrales will best be remembered for the incredible Round 10 of his epic first encounter against Jose Luis Castillo in May 2005. The round included nonstop action, knockdowns and a scarcely believable turnaround.
Two years to the day after that ESPN Fight of the Year, Corrales was killed in a motorcycle accident at the age of 29 in Las Vegas.
Corrales (40-5, 33 KOs), of Sacramento, California, was most dangerous when he was hurt, and at key moments in his career, he won fights after visiting the canvas. He had guts and fought on instinct, making his fights exciting.
Corrales was twice floored in Round 10 by Castillo during the lightweight title unification fight. Castillo, the Mexican two-time WBC champion, looked set to have his hand raised in victory. Corrales could hardly see Castillo throwing punches in front of him due to his badly swollen eyes, and he intelligently spat his mouthguard out to buy a few seconds to help him recover after the second knockdown. And then Corrales launched a big overhand right that hurt Castillo and sealed the victory.
There was more to Corrales than the two Castillo fights. In 1999, he beat Roberto Garcia by seventh-round TKO to win the IBF junior lightweight title. Corrales made three defenses before he faced Floyd Mayweather and was stopped in Round 10 after being floored five times during the fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in 2001.
After the Mayweather loss, Corrales served a 14-month jail sentence for a domestic abuse charge before resuming his career.
Corrales’ rollercoaster career saw him avenge a defeat to Joel Casamayor when he climbed off the canvas to win the WBO title in 2004. Later that year, Corrales stepped up a weight division to stop Acelino Freitas in Round 10 in one of his best career wins, ending Freitas’ unbeaten record. Corrales picked up the WBO lightweight belt in that fight and put the title on the line when he first faced Castillo.
The tough fight with Castillo took a lot out of Corrales, and he was never the same fighter. Castillo knocked out Corrales in four rounds five months after their first fight (but Corrales kept the WBO and WBC belts because Castillo failed to make weight) before Corrales suffered two more decision losses to Casamayor and Joshua Clottey.
Ana Maria Torres
“La Guerrera” Torres was a two-time WBC junior bantamweight champion who twice boxed in North Korea.
Torres (28-3-3, 16 KOs), from Mexico City, dominated the women’s junior bantamweight division from her first title triumph in 2007 until her final fight in 2012.
In 2006, she lost a split decision to Kwang Ok Kim for the WBC bantamweight title in North Korea. Later that year, she beat Mayela Perez for the WBC interim junior bantamweight title, which she held until another trip to North Korea saw her lose a split decision, this time to Myung Ok Ryu, in 2007.
But Torres regained the title in 2008 and defended it 11 times before she retired. In total, Torres made 12 defenses over two reigns with some epic battles against Jackie Nava and Mariana Juarez.
Michael Moorer
What do Moorer, James Toney, Roy Jones Jr., Michael Spinks and Bob Fitzsimmons have in common? They are all part of a small club that have won world titles at light heavyweight and heavyweight.
The 56-year-old Moorer is also one of three fighters (along with Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis) to win a heavyweight title on three occasions.
Moorer (52-4-1, 40 KOs) was just 21 when he won the inaugural WBO light heavyweight title in his 12th professional fight by halting Ramzi Hassan in December 1988. He made nine defenses, all won by KO, before jumping two weight classes to heavyweight.
After his last defense of the WBO light heavyweight title in 1990, the American reappeared as a heavyweight. Seven fights later, Moorer recovered from two early knockdowns to beat Bert Cooper in Round 5 to win the WBO heavyweight title in 1992. The victory was significant as Moorer became the first southpaw to win a heavyweight world title.
Moorer then beat Evander Holyfield for the IBF and WBA titles at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1994, when he recovered from a second-round knockdown to win a majority decision. But Moorer lost the titles six months later to George Foreman, who was trailing on points when he knocked out Moorer with a right hand in Round 10 to become the oldest-ever heavyweight world champion at 45.
Moorer traveled to Germany in 1996 and defeated Axel Schulz by split decision to become a four-time heavyweight world champion. He made two defenses before Holyfield beat him in a title unification rematch at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas in 1997. Moorer visited the canvas five times before his corner stopped the fight in Round 8.
Moorer, born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Monessen, Pennsylvania, ended his 20-year boxing career in 2008.
Ricky Hatton
Hatton, a two-division world champion, is one of the most popular boxers from the United Kingdom in the last 30 years.
Hatton (45-3, 32 KOs), from Manchester, England, won world titles at junior welterweight and welterweight, unified world titles at junior welterweight and fought (and lost to) the best of his era in Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
However, his finest achievement is perhaps the popularity and support he generated. It was reported Hatton attracted 20,000 from British shores to Las Vegas for his 10th-round KO defeat to Mayweather in 2007, and his fan base extended beyond just the hardcore boxing scene in the U.K.
Hatton’s career was transformed when he won the IBF junior welterweight title from Kostya Tszyu in June 2005 in Manchester, after his pressure prompted the Australia-based Russian’s corner to retire Tszyu at the end of Round 11. Tszyu was ranked No. 3 in the pound-for-pound rankings and No. 1 in the division at the time, and the victory for Hatton (the best of his career) confirmed his status as a truly elite boxer.
Hatton campaigned mostly in the U.S. following that breakout win. After a stunning stoppage win over Jose Luis Castillo in Las Vegas in June 2007, Hatton faced the sport’s biggest star in Mayweather in December 2007. It was a huge event, but one that ended with Hatton flat on his back in Round 10.
Pacquiao knocked Hatton out in two rounds in May 2009, and Hatton didn’t return to the ring until three years later against Vyacheslav Senchenko, amid depression and an addiction to drugs and alcohol. At age 34, Hatton announced his retirement after losing to Senchenko and has not fought since.
Jane Couch
Perhaps Couch’s finest achievement was a fight she won outside the ring. The Englishwoman took British boxing authorities to court for the right to fight as a professional. She won, forcing the British Boxing Board of Control to grant her a license to box in 1998, ending a ban on women fighting professionally in the U.K.
Couch, 55, from Fleetwood, England, was a pioneer of the sport and she opened the door for current champions Savannah Marshall, Natasha Jonas, Terri Harper and many others from the U.K. Couch (28-11, 9 KOs) last fought in 2007 after winning world titles at junior welterweight and lightweight.
Ivan Calderon
“Iron Boy” Calderon was a world champion at strawweight (2003-2007) and junior flyweight (2007-2010), making a staggering 17 world title defenses in total. The Puerto Rican had a great fight against Giovani Segura in 2010, which he lost by eighth-round KO to end his unbeaten record.
Calderon (35-3-1, 6 KOs), who had his final fight in 2012, was so good he sparred with bigger fighters such as Oscar De La Hoya and “Sugar” Shane Mosley due to his technique and elusiveness. He dominated the lightest divisions with standout wins against Alex Sanchez, Edgar Cardenas, Roberto Leyva, Daniel Reyes and Isaac Bustos.