Nigel Benn and Gennadiy Golovkin have been elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Benn, a British boxing legend known for his brutal rivalry with Chris Eubank, won world titles at middleweight and super-middleweight. He held the WBC super-middleweight title for four years and retired with a 42-5-1 record (35 KOs). A feared puncher with an aggressive style, Benn remains a fan favourite. This year his son Conor fought Chris Eubank Jr., losing their first meeting and winning the rematch.
Also headlining the class is Gennadiy “Triple G” Golovkin, who was elected in his first year on the ballot in voting by the Boxing Writers Association of America and an international panel of historians. The Kazakh native compiled a 42-2-1 record with 37 KOs and made a record-tying 20 consecutive middleweight title defences after winning his first title in 2010. He fought to a draw with Canelo Alvarez in their first meeting and later lost to him; his final fight came in 2022 in a challenge at super-middleweight. Golovkin called the induction “the biggest honour in boxing” and “the last piece of the puzzle” in his career. A 2004 Olympic silver medallist, he was also recently elected president of World Boxing, the organisation aiming to run Olympic boxing at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Former light-heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver, known for multiple title reigns and for knocking out Roy Jones Jr. in the second round of their 2004 fight (winning two of three meetings with Jones), is another major name in the class. Other fighters elected include early 20th-century heavyweight Jimmy Clabby, who amassed an 86-21-23 record with 46 KOs before retiring in 1923; Japan’s Naoko Fujioka, the country’s first five-division champion who went 19-3-1 (7 KOs); and Jackie Nava, a two-division Mexican champion who captured bantamweight and super-bantamweight titles in consecutive fights and finished 40-4-4.
The class also honours non-boxers: trainers and cut men Russ Anber and Jimmy Glenn; referee Frank Cappuccino; and Dr. Edwin “Flip” Homansky, who becomes just the second physician inducted — the first being his wife, Dr. Margaret Goodman.
The enshrinement ceremony will take place at the International Boxing Hall of Fame museum in Canastota, New York, on June 14, 2026.