By Jake Donovan

Let’s state this up front: The Ring’s champions and boxing’s true lineal champions aren’t always one and the same.

With that in mind, the magazine gets it right in throwing their support behind this weekend’s accidental heavyweight matchup between Wladimir Klitschko and Ruslan Chagaev.

The top two heavyweight contender slots are occupied by the Klitschko brothers, Wlad at numero uno and big brother Vitali claiming the deuce. Everyone has come to accept the fact that the two will most likely never face each other in the squared circle. The RING takes note of this and as a result allows a “one versus three” matchup to fill their void atop what was once the sport’s most storied division.

It’s not the first time that they have went this route, in fact not even a new experience at heavyweight or for the Klitschko family. The last man to wear their crown was Vitali, earning the magazine title with a knockout win over their number three contender, Corrie Sanders.

There have been other one-versus-three matchups to fill their vacancies – Joe Calzaghe’s shutout over Jeff Lacy for their 168 lb. title (although eventually qualified by Joe’s November ’07 win over number two Mikkel Kessler); Rosendo Alvarez’ rubber match win over Beibis Mendoza for their junior flyweight crown, even if ignoring the historical lineage claim held by Jorge Arce, rated number two (ahead of Mendoza) at the time; and so on.

The point being, they’ll make the exception if the fight is deemed worthy enough. Klitschko-Chagaev is a worthy fight to fill the heavyweight void, even if not much is expected of the fight from an entertainment standpoint.

Another worthy exception looms in the light heavyweight ranks, though there is no precedence to sanction it given how their rankings appear at the moment.

It will involve sanctioning a fight between their current number two and three, while ignoring the status of their current top rated light heavyweight.

It also involves further refusal to acknowledge the fact that a lineal light heavyweight champ already exists in Zsolt Erdei, even if his championship résumé leaves A LOT to be desired. 

But since the question always comes up by those at The Ring, wondering aloud why many in the industry remain hesitant to throw their support behind the magazine’s championship policy, there now exists a possible solution:

Sanction the forthcoming rematch between Chad Dawson and Glen Johnson.

Worried that it spits in the face of number-one rated Bernard Hopkins? Don’t fret. There exists evidence to create a new precedence and proceed with proclaiming Dawson-Johnson II as a matchup for all of the light heavyweight marbles.

For starters, Hopkins’ lofty light heavyweight ranking is largely unfounded.

Twenty-one years and 55 fights into his Hall of Fame career, he’s amassed a total of THREE fights against actual light heavyweights – and that’s including career super middleweight Joe Calzaghe moving up in weight for their April ’08 snoozer.

The only true light heavyweight he’s ever beaten is Antonio Tarver, a win whose three-year anniversary was celebrated last week. You have to go all the way back to his pro debut – a majority decision loss to Clinton Mitchell -  to stumble upon the last full-fledged light heavyweight to share ring space with Hopkins.

Two more wins have come in the past two years, both in the 170 lb. HBOPPVweight division, both coming against middleweights (Winky Wright and Kelly Pavlik) moving up in weight.

It’s impossible to justify Hopkins ranking as the number one light heavyweight in the world unless the rating is based on his career as a whole. It’s an even less convincing argument when by his own admission, there isn’t a relevant light heavyweight left that Hopkins even considers fighting.

In the past few months, he’d discussed possible bouts with cruiserweight king Tomasz Adamek, super middleweight titlist Carl Froch, and of course the age-old backburner plan of a rematch with Roy Jones Jr. Of no interest to him at this stage of his career are any fights that result in modest-sized paydays – the main reason names like Chad Dawson and Glen Johnson aren’t on the tip of his tongue.

So given his overall body of work against light heavyweights, and his open unwillingness to never again face a top fighter in his own weight class for anything less than a career-high payday, why continue to reward him at the expense of the rest of the division?

While attempting to come up with a valid response, think about this:

Chad Dawson (28-0, 17KO) arrived at light heavyweight around the same time as Hopkins, after having breezed through the prospect and gatekeeper levels at 160 and 168.

To date, the southpaw is 8-0 in fights contractually bound by a 175 lb. weight limit. Three of the wins (Jason Hearn, Jesus Ruiz and Epifanio Mendoza) can be regarded as throwaway fights, where anything other than a dominant win would be viewed as a disappointment.

What can’t be discounted are wins over the likes of Eric Harding, Tomasz Adamek, Glen Johnson and a pair against Antonio Tarver, all of which have come at the same time Hopkins has caused a traffic jam at the top of the light heavyweight division.

Four of the aforementioned fights came against fighters ranked very high among any respectable light heavyweight rankings. Some even argued Dawson-Adamek was a battle between the present and the future of the light heavyweight division when they squared off in February 2007.

Johnson has twice been involved in fights in which it was believed the best two light heavyweights in the world were taking center stage, both times coming against Antonio Tarver. The first fight capped a career year in 2004, in which he scored wins over Tarver, Roy Jones (KO9) and Clinton Woods (UD12) to capture Fighter of the Year honors.

It’s been an up-and-down ride for Johnson since then, going 7-3 since sitting atop the light heavyweight mountain. The losses came against Tarver (L-UD12 in their June ’05 rematch), Woods (L-SD12 in their third fight in September ’06) and also the close loss to Dawson last April, a fight in which many felt should’ve went the other way.

With Joe Calzaghe retired, lineal champ Zsolt Erdei content with staying put in Germany while avoiding the division’s best… there’s just not a lot to choose from to ignore the significance that comes with a Dawson-Johnson rematch later this year. 

As it stands, the winner of their fight would then have to face Bernard Hopkins in order for The Ring to declare a new magazine champ.

That’s the stance they can take if they continue to play dumb, and hold out hope that Hopkins will one day decide to try to even up his record against light heavyweights to at least .500. They can believe that even with Hopkins willing to sit out the rest of 2009 if it means not securing a monster payday, or with his never taking on the best light heavyweights while previously serving as the magazine’s champion.

Or… they can ditch the hard line stance of “championships are won and lost in the ring and legends (like Hopkins) deserve the benefit of the doubt.” It’s been common practice by many ratings editors to drop a fighter due to inactivity. By the time Dawson-Johnson II rolls around (September or November), Hopkins will be out of the ring for 11-13 months, and most likely with no fight in the bank, which means an even lengthier stay on the inactive roster.

Choosing the latter marks the first step towards the magazine’s progression, their ability to think outside the box. It will crown a new champion in one of the sport’s most historically storied divisions, all while sending a message that no matter the career you led, no fighter has the right to sit on a ranking.

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at

JakeNDaBox@gmail.com

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