UFC 100 will bring two new additions to the UFC Hall of Fame which has already caused rampant speculation on who those two figures will be. Chuck Liddell? Charles "Mask" Lewis? Evan Tanner? Tito Ortiz? Frank Shamrock?
Frankly, who cares? They may as well induct Dana White and Jon Hess and shutdown new membership.
I have my issues with the Baseball Hall of Fame (and they are plenty), but at least there's a transparent method to the madness. The BBWAA (the writers that vote for HOF membership) is filled with treacherous swines for human beings, but we know who's voting and the criteria they should be considering.
We don't know what exactly it takes to obtain membership in the UFC's pearly gates, but it's clear that being on the good side of Dana and other UFC brass is a very particular prerequisite.
And while I won't care about a UFC Hall of Fame until they provide objective criteria, I do want to say one thing about one name that's been bounced around. Evan Tanner does not belong in any sort of circle of elite mixed martial artists. Tanner's story is tragic, inspirational, romantic, and all sorts of descriptive adjectives, that much is true. But Tanner reminds me of someone like Harold Baines in baseball. Elite athletes should comprise a hall of fame. Tanner, like Baines, belongs in that so-close-but-yet-so-far Hall of Very Good.
For instance, right now, I feel like Rich Franklin is a borderline Hall of Famer. Reason being, he beat a lot of quality fighters, but each time he has stepped in the cage or ring against top competition (Machida, Silva, and Henderson), he wound up on the wrong side of the ledger. And Tanner, in my opinion, doesn't have near the resume of someone like Franklin.
