New York State Boxing Hall of Fame Announces Inaugural Class

All-time great “Sugar” Ray Robinson will lead the inaugural class of the recently-founded New York State Boxing Hall of Fame, officials announced at a press conference in Manhattan on Tuesday.

“A dream is happening and with your help together we the dream is becoming reality,” said NYSBHOF president Tony Mazzarella. “We are recognizing all who put on the gloves in the state.”

The initial class for the NYSBHOF, which is sponsored by the state’s veteran boxers association Ring 8, includes “Iron” Mike Tyson, Jake LaMotta, Carmen Basilio, Riddick Bowe, Carlos Ortiz, Mike “Bodysnatcher” McCallum and the late Gene Tunney, Benny Leonard and Tony Canzoneri. Non-participant inductees include judge/HBO analyst Harold Lederman, coach/instructor Steve Acunto, trainer/cut-man Jimmy Glenn and, posthumously, trainers Gil Clancy and Ray Arcel, Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer, New York Daily News boxing reporter/cartoonist Bill Gallo, and referee Arthur Mercante, Sr.

“New York has more fighters, better fighters, and is still the Mecca of boxing,” Lederman said. “It’s such an honor to be in the same class as Sugar Ray Robinson, Tony Canzoneri and Benny Leonard.”

According to Ring 8 president Bob Duffy, the concept to form the Hall came from Mazzarella, who contacted the state.

“The idea was around for a while and a group of us got together about 14 months and got this going,” Duffy said.

“We plan to do this every year. Our first introduction dinner will be at Russo’s On The Bay in March of 2012. We have a wall at Waterfront Crabhouse which will list our Class of 2012 and another at the New York State Athletic Commission. We started this to honor New York fight people.”

The six-member NYSBHOF nominating committee includes Boxing Writers Association of America president Jack Hirsch, Showtime analyst and former Ring Magazine editor Steve Farhood, Henry Hascup, Bobby Cassidy, Jr., Ron McNair and Neil Terens. Boxers had to have been inactive for at least three years and all inductees must have spent a significant portion of their careers residing in New York.

“It’s good to see so many good people in this business here and I see some future Hall of Famers. This is a celebration more than a press conference,” Hirsch said. “The New York State Boxing Hall of Fame is only for New York people. Selecting was a difficult task and it will be even more difficult in years to come.”

New York state is already home to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, a five-hour drive from the city between Utica and Syracuse. But the new organization is a welcome addition. Unlike sanctioning bodies, there can never be too many ways to honor old fighters. We’re going to be bringing you more information on state and local boxing hall of fames in our coverage area in the near future, since I’m staring at the Washington, D.C. Boxing Hall of Fame’s latest induction announcement as we speak.

More on that later though, for today New York will be the center of the boxing world’s attention as it has been so often. This weekend I tweeted that having finally attended big fights in both places, I can confirm that the Garden is indeed still the Mecca of the sport. My fellow fight scribe David Greisman called the weekend exhilarating, despite the lack of action inside the ring on Saturday night. I hope the folks that run the sport are taking notes. How often are people just happy to be in Atlantic City or Houston?