Roy Jones Jr., Miguel Cotto, Holly Holm headline 2022 International Boxing Hall of Fame class

Roy Jones Jr., Miguel Cotto, Holly Holm headline 2022 International Boxing Hall of Fame class
Roy Jones Jr., Miguel Cotto, Holly Holm headline 2022 International Boxing Hall of Fame class

On Tuesday, the International Boxing Hall of Fame announced the inductees for the 2022 class and it is loaded with some big names. Headlining the class are Roy Jones Jr., Miguel Cotto and James Toney on the men's side, with Holly Holm and Regina Halmich for the women. The class will be inducted alongside the 2021 and 2020 classes, which have both seen their ceremonies delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hall of Fame nominees are voted on by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America as well as a panel of boxing historians. The induction ceremony is held at the Hall of Fame museum in Canastota, New York.

Let's take a quick look at the biggest names in the 2022 class.

Roy Jones Jr.

Voted Fighter of the Decade for the 1990s by the Boxing Writers Association of America, Jones won world championships in four weight classes while spending a large portion of his career as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. Jones' first championship victory came in May 1993, capturing the IBF middleweight title with a win over Bernard Hopkins. In November 1994, Jones moved up to super middleweight to win the IBF title against James Toney. Jones also was a unified champion at light heavyweight and only lost one fight in his first 50 contests, that being a disqualification loss against Montell Griffin that Jones avenged in less that one round in the rematch. Amazingly, Jones also went up to heavyweight, where he defeated John Ruiz to become WBA champion. Jones holds a career record of 66-9 with 47 wins by knockout.

Miguel Cotto

Cotto held titles across four weight classes in his career and fought in some of the biggest and most important fights of his era. Cotto won the WBO junior welterweight title in 2004, successfully defending the title six times before moving to welterweight to win the WBA belt in 2006. He would defend that title against the likes of Zab Judah and Shane Mosley before losing the belt to Antonio Margarito in a bloody war that many question after Margarito was found to have illegally loaded his hand wraps against Mosley. Cotto would eventually win titles at junior middleweight and middleweight. In his career, he fought huge bouts against other big names including Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

James Toney

Toney won championships in three weight classes, including middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight. Toney went undefeated in the first 46 fights of his career. That included six defenses of the IBF middleweight championship and three defenses of the IBF super middleweight championship. After losing the super middleweight title in 1994, Toney would not hold another world title until 2003 when he pulled off a big win over Vassiliy Jirov in 2003. Toney would go on to make two bids for heavyweight championships, drawing with Hasim Rahman after defeating John Ruiz, a victory that was overturned after Toney failed a drug test.

Holly Holm

While Holm may have found more mainstream attention in the UFC, where she won the women's bantamweight championship from Ronda Rousey in a now-iconic upset, she first used her fistic talents in the boxing ring. Holm won championships at junior welterweight, welterweight and junior middleweight. She defended her championships 18 times and only lost one fight once she had reached the championship level. That loss was a brutal knockout at the hands of Anne Sophie Mathis in 2011, though Holm avenged the loss in their rematch, fighting only two more times after before transitioning to mixed martial arts.

Regina Halmich

Halmich transitioned from a successful kickboxing career to the boxing ring in 1994. In her ninth fight, she lost for the only time in her career, failing to win the IBF female flyweight title against Yvonne Trevino. She would win the belt in her next outing, going on

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