Ring is the King
By Tom Donelson

March 15, 2009 - Ring Magazine rankings are the most authoritative ranking in the sport today. Forget the sanctioning bodies, they don’t count when it comes to ranking. Only Ring magazine counts since they have nothing to gain and no political ax to grind. There is one thing that irks me and that is when Ring Magazine leaves titles vacant, especially in selected divisions where the choice is or should be obvious.

In the Heavyweight division, the best fighter is Wladimir Klitschko. Sometimes the eye test gives one all the evidence and clue needed to make a decision and in the Heavyweight division, does anyone see any of the other champions beating Klitschko, except his brother, Vitali? (The brothers have already stated that they will not fight each other; so Wladimir present biggest threat is his brother Vitali and vice versa.)

Many pundits have held Wladimir three defeats against him but Wladimir had not lost a fight in nearly six years. For the past decade, Wladimir had either held a portion of the Heavyweight title or contending for one. He has been the best heavyweight since Lennox Lewis retirement. There is no reason not to make Wladimir the official Ring champion.

The Welterweight division is another example. There is no reason that Shane Mosley should be denied the Ring magazine Welterweight championship. He beat the best Welterweight in the world and that alone is worth the belt. This would be equivalent of disallowing Muhammad Ali the championship belt after upsetting Liston, and simply declaring the championship belt vacant since it was a big upset. The Welterweight is a competitive division in which any of the top five or six fighters can beat the other on any given night. Right now, the king of the Welterweight is Mosley.

In the light heavyweight division, I disagree with the rankings of having Bernard Hopkins as the number one challenger and Dawson number two. Dawson has beaten two of the top light heavyweights and will be facing Antonio Tarver in a rematch. This fight should be the fight to determine who will be the light heavyweight champion to replace Joe Calzaghe. This is one of those decisions that a case can be made for Hopkins but a better case can be made for Dawson.

Ring Magazine rankings are the most reliable rankings but there is no reason to leave any championships vacant; all this does is strengthen the sanctioning bodies’ claims when ranking champions. If Ring Magazine declares champion in all divisions, then it will reduce the sanctioning bodies championship bodies influences.

How should boxing fans view sanctioning bodies’ championships? The same way as a football fans view the 2008 New York Giants as the NFL East championships. It is the equivalent of being a divisional champion but it is not the real championship. Giants may have won the NFC East but the Steelers won the Super Bowl. In the same way, Andre Berto may have a portion of the Welterweight title but Mosley won the Super Bowls of the Welterweights when he defeated Antonio Margarito.

Ring magazine have recruited some of the leading experts to decide the rankings and ESPN among other networks are slowing recognizing the Ring rankings at the official rankings. In order for Ring Magazine to supplement the sanctioning bodies, there can be no more vacant champions. The biggest weakness of boxing is that there are too many champions and this has created confusion among boxing fans. Ring magazine rankings are going a long way to bring sanity to boxing and now it is time for Ring magazine to complete the job.

Boxing power shifting overseas

This past Saturday, Lucian Bute won his version of the Super Middleweight championship when he whacked Zulgencio Zuniga in four rounds and in the process brought attention to American boxing fans that indeed, there are some excellent fighters outside the states. In the case of theSuper Middleweights, the championship belts are held by Lucian Bute, Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler; not one American even thought Jermain Taylor is hoping to change that when he faces the undefeated Froch. For the past year, I have made the point that boxing power is shifting overseas and the Super Middleweights is one example. Kessler may be the best of the Super Middleweight with his only lost being to a Hall of Fame fighter, Joe Calzaghe. Kessler is an excellent boxer-puncher and Bute showed against Zuniga, he is an also excellent boxing puncher as he ended the fight with a perfectly laid punch into Zuniga gut.

In reviewing Ring Magazine top rankings from the upper weight division from Middleweight to the Heavyweight divisions; the top fighters reside outside of the United States. The Heavyweight top ten is devoid of American fighters and the Cruiserweights have only two Americans among its top ten. In those divisions above the light heavyweight, the best fighters live outside the United States. This also means that many of these fights are held outside the United States. This has hurt the popularity of the Heavyweight division stateside and kept the Cruiserweight division as one of boxing best kept secret.

Many American promoters are hoping for a Jermain Taylor victory over Froch, if for no other reason; it mean that promoters will at least have one America with a belt among 168 pounders. In the Middleweight division, Kelly Pavlik is the Ring Magazine champ but underneath him is the tough German based fighter, Arthur Abraham. Abraham is a tough brawler with skills and certainly a Pavlik-Abraham fight would be one for the ages and not one that Pavlik would automatically the favored.

The only division where Americans are among the best is the light heavyweight division. Chad Dawson may be the best light heavyweight but the other champions live overseas and the biggest problem in setting up future fights is many of the European fighters don’t have the financial interest in fighting in the states. European fighters toil in front of sellout crowds and make good money staying on their side of the Atlantic.

In the lower division, Indonesia Chris John took a pay cut to fight Rocky Juarez in Houston to defend his title and many of the European fighters would have take similar cuts. Why give up home court advantage for possibly less money?

In the Middleweight division, the big debate is where a Arthur Abraham-Kelly Pavlik fight be held? When Abraham fought Edison Miranda for a second time, he did so stateside; leaving the impression that Abraham may be willing to fight Pavlik stateside and he may still be willing if the money is right.

A switch of boxing power means a switch in revenues moving overseas as overseas promoters become richer and more powerful at the expense of their American counterparts. American promoters have the advantage of working with Hispanic fighters and American promoters like Don King have impact with European fighters but as time wears on; it will be the overseas promoters who may be new king makers.

In boxing, it is the promoters with the fighters who end up with the money. And in boxing, money rules.