For most people in the U.S., the weather cooldown, the gorgeous color changes on trees and the countdown to October 31 means Halloween. For International Boxing Hall of Fame voters, it means the time remaining to submit a signed ballot is running out.

The IBHOF in Canastota, N.Y., has been the de facto hub of boxing history activity and generally the largest of boxing’s halls since 1990. Before that, from the mid-1950s until an ownership change in 1989, The Ring’s hall of fame was the sport’s foremost organization for recognizing its greatest fighters and pioneers.

The previous hall was based out of New York City, as were The Ring’s offices, which previously doubled as one of the sport’s best-curated museums. More than 150 fighters were inducted, and various U.S. states followed suit with their own halls. When The Ring’s owner changed, the hall was closed down.

All but about one dozen fighters who were inducted into The Ring’s hall of fame have been inducted at Canastota. For many years, the IBHOF’s induction week also represented one of the largest gatherings of name fighters and hardcore fight fans outside of superfights. Perhaps more importantly, induction week is an event meant specifically to give fans better access to fighters of yesteryear and the sport’s history.

From a fighter perspective, reaching the ballot is considered an honor and being inducted represents the realization of a lifelong dream. Needless to say, only a fraction of the many fighters on the ballot will get in as only three are elected each year. The voting is handled by a group of some of boxing’s senior and most recognizable media members and writers, who often share the ballot itself and their votes.

There are 42 fighters on the current modern ballot. The voting protocols have changed a few times in recent years, though right now a fighter must be retired for three years and have their last fight happen no earlier than 1989 to be eligible for induction. Most fighters on the modern ballot are either multi-division world champions or champions who reigned for a significant period of time.

The majority of voters are submitting ballots only for the modern category. Anyone else eligible falls into four other categories: observers, non-participants, pioneers and old-timers. The voting for those groups are decided by voters hand-picked by the IBHOF’s board of directors.

Anyone who respects the sport’s history wants every fighter’s hard work and sacrifice to be acknowledged through a hall of fame-esque mechanism. The punishment each fighter absorbs in the ring and the risk each fighter accepts by stepping into one are often recognized in word and not deed. Thus the opportunity to let fighters know that everything they did in the ring actually meant something, and not just to them, is priceless.

Unfortunately the reality is much closer to boxing’s overall power structure: a small chunk at the top will be recognized, and the rest will be relatively forgotten.

Unlike many other voting years, there aren’t many huge or recognizable names on the ballot that seem like shoo-ins. What there are, however, are a handful of fighters who have strong arguments for being among the best ever in a division.

Gilberto Román and Moon Sung-Kil are veterans of the ballot and at risk of being bumped off, but they are two of the greatest of all-time at junior bantamweight. Likewise, Israel Vázquez was easily one of the greatest junior featherweights ever, not to mention one of the most exciting fighters of the 2000s.

Santos Laciar and Yuri Arbachakov could also exit the ballot before being inducted, and they were perhaps in the top 20 or 25 greatest flyweights ever. In other divisions that might not qualify, but historically flyweight is an incredibly deep division.

A few others might rate a bit lower in their divisions, or in slightly weaker divisions, such as Sot Chitalada and Samuel Serrano at flyweight and junior lightweight.

There are also fighters with arguments based on accomplishments with asterisks, or accomplishments that have a ring of novelty to them. Sven Ottke might be the most obvious example, as he dominated the super middleweight opposition on paper, but he fought outside of Germany only once and benefitted from multiple disputed decisions.

Leo Gamez won world titles in four divisions, but against generally low quality opposition and he lost to every high quality fighter he faced. Gianfranco Rosi made 11 defenses of a junior middleweight title, again having an issue with opponent quality and locale. Chris John, one of the greatest fighters from Indonesia, and Pongsaklek Wonjongkam have the same strikes against them.

Another reality of the voting process for the IBHOF is that, just like any other hall of fame, popularity and recency bias weigh heavily. Many of the deserving fighters also weren’t from the U.S., and fought during a time when that counted for much more. Many of the voters never saw any of those fighters until well after their careers ended, and only through the magic of the Internet.

Fighters on the ballot who were more mainstream and indeed from the U.S. simply have a greater chance of getting in. Fighters such as the late Vernon Forrest and Antonio Tarver who might have been just outside the necessary minimum of votes required in other years might be considered frontrunners this year by virtue of defeating pound-for-pound level opponents who were already inducted. Fernando Vargas and Shawn Porter may even have a sporting chance.

There seems to be at least one major controversy or discussion point every voting year, and this year it revolved around Gennadiy “GGG” Golovkin, Kazakhstan’s middleweight champion and bruiser who is currently trying to reshape his country’s amateur boxing landscape.

Golovkin held some version of the middleweight title for nearly 10 years straight and plowed through opponents, only losing to Canelo Álvarez as a professional. He was also a world amateur champion and Olympic silver medalist.

The problem is Golovkin was openly avoided by the three lineal middleweight champs in a row. It was a situation he certainly didn’t create, but it counts against his ledger nonetheless. Sergio Martínez openly admitted that he should fight Golovkin and didn’t, and Miguel Cotto was at a loss for words when directly confronted about making the fight following his only defense of the title against Daniel Geale. By the time Álvarez gave GGG his shot at the title, the 35-year-old had visibly slowed.

During the seven years Golovkin was made to wait, he did the only thing he could be expected to do: he cleaned out his wing of the division. Golovkin made 20 defenses of the WBA middleweight title, most by knockout. But again, he’s working against the fact that he was never the lineal middleweight champion and he only gained the “regular” WBA title when Felix Sturm was mystically elevated to being a super champion.

Golovkin has a strong argument for being worthy of induction into the IBHOF, but it’s not clear if he’s more deserving than Laciar, Moon or Román. Then again, merit is only one factor.

For years, a few fighters have been omitted from the ballot for unknown reasons. The most obvious examples are Sumbu Kalambay and Marlon Starling. Kalambay was a middleweight champion with a victory over then-undefeated Mike McCallum, and Starling was a two-time welterweight champion with wins over Mark Breland, Lloyd Honeyghan and Simon Brown, or three of the best welterweights of his day.

For that matter, two-division champ Simon Brown deserves consideration.

The IBHOF used to have a number of mainstays year after year who are now considered legends of the game. Alexis Argüello, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Emile Griffith, Jake LaMotta, Ken Norton, José Nápoles, Bob Foster and Carmen Basilio were fighters who thrilled fans by meeting up with them at cocktail events or playing golf. They ran the IBHOF marathon and signed countless autographs between stories about their careers. And all are now gone, as are many of the annual events.

Canastota is a small town in Upstate and the IBHOF facility struggled to survive the COVID pandemic a few years ago. Whatever the combination of factors, other halls such as the Atlantic City Hall of Fame and the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame, filled the gap and managed to become more star-studded events than Canastota’s typical induction week from recent years. But there’s only one IBHOF.

Wider acknowledgement of fighters, all in all, is a good thing. Keeping history alive in boxing is important for all the same reasons as it is when the sport isn’t involved, and ensuring a fighter’s place in history should be considered an honor.

Ultimately, a healthy IBHOF is better for the sport.