Three of boxing’s biggest stars of the modern era will officially be Hall of Famers. Bernard Hopkins, Juan Manuel Marquez and Shane Mosley were announced on Wednesday as 2020 inductees into the Boxing Hall of Fame. Also in the 2020 class are former women’s champs Christy Martin, Lucia Rijker and Barbara Buttrick.
Hopkins (55-8-2, 32 KOs) received his first shot at a world championship in May 1993, coming up short against Roy Jones Jr. He fought his final world title bout more than 20 years later, losing the WBA and IBF light heavyweight titles to Sergey Kovalev. Hopkins’ first world title win came in 1995 when he defeated Segundo Mercado to win the then-vacant IBF middleweight title. He would successfully defend that belt 20 times, including one no contest, to set a record for most in middleweight history. Gennady Golovkin recently tied the mark in May 2018. He added the WBA, WBC, Ring Magazine and lineal middleweight belts along the way before moving up to light heavyweight where he became a multiple-time world champion. He would continue winning world championships until age 49.
Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KOs) is a Mexican boxing legend and produced some of the most memorable fights of his era. In his career, Marquez won titles from featherweight to welterweight. His career will forever be defined by his four-fight rivalry with the legendary Manny Pacquiao. The two first met at featherweight in May 2004, battling to a controversial draw which Pacquiao would have narrowly won were it not for a scoring error. Their second clash, in November 2007, saw Pacquiao score a knockdown that allowed him to narrowly edge Marquez via split decision to take the Mexican’s WBC super featherweight championship. Marquez then challenged for Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight title in November 2011, losing a controversial majority decision. Marquez would finally get his win over Pacquiao when they met for the WBO “Champion of the Decade” title in December 2012. Marquez scored an all-time highlight knockout of Pacquiao, the only truly satisfying conclusion in their four fights and Pacquiao’s first knockout loss since 1999.
Mosley (49-10-1, 41 KOs) was an easy star for boxing. Good locking, charismatic and skilled, “Sugar” was not above dragging himself into an all-out war. Mosley won the IBF lightweight title, defending it eight times before moving up to welterweight where he eventually defeated Oscar De La Hoya to win the WBC and IBA championships. Mosley won his first 38 fights and also won gold at junior middleweight when he defeated De La Hoya a second time. He fought almost every big name of his era, including De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, Pacquiao, Canelo Alvarez, Miguel Cotto and many others.
Buttrick was a women’s boxing pioneer and world champion in the 1940s and 1950s. Martin (49-7-3) famously battled Deirdre Gogarty in a thrilling fight on Showtime that landed her on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Rijker (17-0, 14 KOs) was one of the most dominant women in boxing from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s.
Also entering the Hall of Fame are non-fighter inductees Lou DiBella, Kathy Duva, Dan Goossen, Bernard Fernandez and Thomas Hauser.
