By Steve Kim
Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages

Showtime is billing their doubleheader this weekend in Tampa, Florida - which has the WBC light heavyweight title bout between Chad Dawson and Glen Johnson and the clash between Clinton Woods and Antonio Tarver for the IBF light heavyweight belt - as featuring, 'the four best light heavyweights in the world.' And it certainly features a quartet of the very elite at 175-pounds.

Many pundits (including this one) agree with Dawson, who said on a recent conference call with the media, "Come April 12th, I'm going to show everybody I'm not just the future of the division, I am the division and I'm the best light heavyweight in the world."

But there's one small problem, Bernard Hopkins holds the distinction of being the 'real' (as Max Kellerman would say) champion at 175-pounds by virtue of his victory over Tarver in June of 2006. Hopkins, since winning that crown, has made one title defense versus a blown up jr. middleweight (at a catch-weight of 170 pounds), and then on April 19th he will face Joe Calzaghe, a career super middleweight.

So what if Dawson unifies the rest of the division, and then you have Hopkins or Calzaghe with possession of the Ring Championship belt? Who's the man at 175? Do you go by lineage (which is not to be confused with being the best) or do you go with the fighter who's accomplished more within the division?

But more importantly, would Dawson ever get a crack at the holder of the Ring belt?

"I think they're both afraid of Chad Dawson," the outspoken manager of Dawson, Mike Criscio, says of both Hopkins and Calzaghe. "We had a contract to fight Calzaghe in November, a year ago and it was all said and done and good to go and a week later, oh, he doesn't want to fight him. Hopkins, you mention Chad's name and he's got amnesia. He says, 'Well, I want to fight everybody in the division, I'm the best in the division. I want to unify this and that.' Well, I said, 'That's all fine and good but you gotta go through Chad Dawson to get there.' So now what he's doing is instead of fighting at 175-pounds, he's fighting at all these other weights that don't make a damn difference for anything."

The reality is, no matter what Dawson does in the future, should he get past the rugged Johnson and then down every other world-class light heavyweight in the world, he may never get an opportunity at 'The Ring' champion. The same may apply to Johnson or Woods should they come out of this gauntlet unscathed. They could be a lot like every other welterweight who waits around for Floyd Mayweather or a guy like Nate Campbell (more on him later), who may not fit into the promotional plans of those who know own this belt.

The Ring Championship policy, when it was first devised several years ago, was a great guidepost to give fans and media alike an idea of who was the best in each division. The fact it is now being hatched as some pseudo sanctioning body and being shoved down everyone’s throat is where it crosses the line. They are an editorial entity, and their job, last we checked, was to report the news, not be an official arbiter or ruling body of the sport.

Oh, and did we mention it is now owned by a promotional entity in Golden Boy Promotions - which just happens to promote Hopkins.

"How can you trust 'The Ring' belt, which is owned by the partner of the guy who has the belt?" asked Criscio. "I mean, that's bulls**t. He should put it up for grabs. I mean De La Hoya owns the company now and he (Hopkins) is the Ring champion at 175, but the only problem is he hasn't really fought at 175."

Regardless of that, Hopkins did beat Tarver for what was considered the recognized distinction as the best light heavyweight in the world when he fought him. But the question arises, when, if ever, will the winner of Hopkins/Calzaghe fight be forced to fight a boxer who clearly earns the right to fight for that particular title?

"Well, unfortunately you know the history of 'The Ring'," says Dawson's promoter, Gary Shaw. "You can't lose the belt outside of the ring. So Oscar (De La Hoya) has control of it now. Oscar and Richard Schaefer, it's their party, they own the magazine, so they can leave someone in there no matter who they fight for a 100 years if that's what they want."

Does Shaw recognize the Ring belt?

"No, I don't recognize 'The Ring'. I recognize the sanctioning bodies that I've been dealing with all these years and 'The Ring' is just another belt," he states. "The only good thing is you don't have to pay for it. But it's just another belt that's awarded by 'The Ring' and if you own the magazine, you could do the same thing. But then they oughta have Casamayor fight Nate Campbell and they could unify. Those fights should be made."

Which brings us to another issue. Golden Boy Promotions, which just inked former lightweight titlist Juan Diaz, is making plans to match him up with Joel Casamayor, who has 'The Ring' championship. It’s a good fight, but here's the catch: Diaz, who basically cleaned up the division last year (while the Cuban basically priced himself out of other fights) was soundly defeated by Campbell back on March 8th. Campbell now holds the majority of the alphabet belts and is widely considered by many observers as the game’s top 135-pounder.

But because he's not with Golden Boy, but Don King, it seems he's not eligible for that fight as of now. Going back to Casamayor, it has to be pointed out that he won this title in a fight against Diego Corrales in October of 2006 that wasn't even an official lightweight bout, as 'Chico' failed to make weight, which certainly was no fault of his. But he was then also stripped of his WBC belt that came with that fight for reneging on his promise to face David Diaz. Then after pricing himself out of some fights in the first half of 2007, Casamayor (who has had a 'Ring' patch adorning his trunks the last two fights) was then a recipient of a gift decision last November versus Jose Armando Santa Cruz (who I guess could be dubbed 'the really, reeeaaalll lightweight champion.)

Say what you will about the sanctioning organizations, they are deserving of much of the heat that comes their way. But in this instance it was the WBC who ordered an immediate rematch between Casamayor and Santa Cruz. And it's the WBO who ordained that negotiations between Campbell and Casamayor had to begin by April 4th. Meanwhile, Golden Boy and Casamayor look like they are going ahead with plans to match Casamayor and the guy who just got beat by Campbell. It's no guarantee that Campbell will ever get a shot at the ‘real' title. And Schaefer has already mentioned how difficult he feels Campbell's promoter can be to deal with, although that seems to be a weak crutch, given that they were able to make a De La Hoya-Ricardo Mayorga promotion not too long ago.

"Well, that's going to be wrong," King would say. "They're going to be hard-pressed to do that for a simple reason that you got trepidation with it, right now. You can't take that and be selfish and that's some Frankie Carbo-type of stuff. You're going to do it with a velvet glove; he did it with a gun, club and a knife."

If Casamayor does indeed face 'the Baby Bull' and then gets his wish to face Marco Antonio Barrera (like he stated at the post-fight press conference after his victory over Katsidis) and then perhaps a rematch with Katsidis (this trio all being promoted by Golden Boy) then this version of the lightweight belt would be very much like the UFC's version of their titles. It may signify who is the best fighter in that particular weight class in that specific company, but it certainly isn't a 'world championship' or 'real' by any stretch of the imagination.

Unfortunately, both Dawson and Campbell fall in under the same archetype: highly skilled and dangerous fighters who aren't necessarily big draws or marquee names to the general public. Those kinds of fighters have been avoided for years.

"Here's the problem with 'The Ring' belt; I like the idea that you can't lose it outside the ring, but, you have to fight someone. You should be forced to fight the number one. Or you don't have the belt. It's not a case where you stay there until you lose and don't fight any big fights or fight tough fights," says Shaw. "Let's wait till April 12th, lets see who wins Tarver and Woods, let see who wins between Chad and Glen Johnson, then we will start to narrow down the field.

"So at that point, 'The Ring', like any other sanctioning body, has got to recognize those kids."

Do they?

As Golden Boy has control of the majority of HBO's dates (and no network has pushed this agenda of 'The Ring' belt quite like them) they can keep making fights for the network featuring their champions and their championship while summarily ignoring the likes of Campbell and Dawson.