Hank Kaplan - Career

Career

Kaplan moved to Miami as a young adolescent, where he married his first wife. They had two children, twins, but divorced shortly after. His interest in boxing grew while living in Miami. He spent many hours at the Fifth Street Gym in Miami Beach, where he first met Cassius Clay (later to be known as Muhammed Ali). Kaplan spent many hours at the Fifth Street Gym, with many of boxing's greatest legends from the 1950s. It was here that he met the Dundee brothers, Chris and Angelo. Kaplan later became the publicist for the Dundee brothers' fighters, who included Muhammad Ali. For a short period of time, he co-promoted fights with Ramiro Ortiz, however, his passion for boxing history took over his love for promoting.

Kaplan was the founder and editor of Boxing Digest and served as a boxing consultant to various media outlets for many years, including ESPN, HBO and Showtime. He also wrote for The Ring magazine. He received the James J. Walker Award for long and meritorious service to boxing from the Boxing Writers Association of America in 2002. In 2006 he was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Many professional boxers had wished to nominate Kaplan for the Hall of Fame for years on end, however, since Hank served on the Hall of Fame Nominating Committee, they were unable to nominate him. As was typical, anyone who was worthy of a nomination, would typically voluntarily step down from the Nominating Committee, in order to accept the nomination. Kaplan, however, refused to do so for years, stating he wanted to see others nominated before him. After much pressure, Kaplan agreed and was inducted in 2006 into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.