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Ring magazine has been sold. Where does it go from here? Better, worse, the same? Can Alalshikh bring boxing back to the mainstream?
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Got a definition of mainstream? What does mainstream amount to for ya? Or do you just mean more popular?
Anyone that can make the fights we want desperately to see but almost never get to see prime on prime, can up boxing revenues.
The younger generations needed for mainstream are another nut to crack though. Another dynamo a la Tyson could rivet their fickle attentions for a while. But long-haul-like, they ain't coming and boxing will never be what it was to past generations of young 'uns.
There is more violence in a PG14 movie than most boxing matches. If they crave action, there are numerous MMA ogs where it seems more like a real fight and less like a dance. Gotta remember, those young generations are already steeped in every kind of violent action, they don't need boxing as it is, boxing as it is needs them, but as it is cannot have them.
Maybe the mighty Turkey has revolutionary plans for boxing, if that exists.
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Ring's always been a publication sold on the idea that the journalism and ratings and such are unaffected by the size of wallets in boxing while just by coincidence having a deep connection with a promoter or some other deep walleted boxing businessman.
Nothing has really changed.
I'd love to believe in the objectivity of the publication but when you start life as Tex Richard's personal promotional publication it's hard to break out of the industry you created and monopolized.
**** **** ton of alt rankings similar to Ring but none are even close in popularity. The fact that TBRB and BoxRec are really the only names worthy of dropping in Ring's mention speaks volumes as to Ring's domination of unsanctioned ratings.
For years it was common to conflate the Ring titles with the lineal titles. Because Ring invented the industry, the verbiage, the idea ... like y'all do know John L went his entire lifetime never having heard the term lineal champion. ... Because Ring made up lineal and gave that idea to everyone. John L being lineal 1 is posthumous, likewise, John L being the signifier of the end of LPRR and the beginning of QBR is a Ring/Nat Fleischer concept.
I'm excited by the opportunity for someone to do something new with Ring, but I'd bet he's more of the same. Paid promo ranking with a dash of sniffing Fleischer farts.Comment
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I think it's good news...maybe more of the fights we want to see will be pushed to the forefront via Ring coverage...and with Turki's deep pockets he can avoid bribery's from promoters who want their undeserved fighters ranked or written about...Comment
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It can't go worse than 1977. Many among the older ones (namely, among us) cry about Turki and his methods, but had nothing to say when Don King was wheeling and dealing behind the scenes for decades.
A little reminder of the times of yore:
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The Ring, the prestigious boxing magazine, had been involved in the scandal since 1976, because one of the magazine's then assistant editors, Johnny Ort, had been elevating boxer rankings since 1976 and publishing about fights that never took place for those boxers, and so then updating those boxers' fight records to reflect such non-existent bouts in order for them to be accepted into the tournament by ABC.
Wasn't this common, albeit verbal, all the way back to the bare knuckles days and ever since?
Exaggerated resumes, because they couldn't be confirmed, were always part of boxing negotiations.
All that is different here, is that we became a hierarchical culture that gathers its "knowledge" from a consensus of identified sources and only some by word of mouth. That there were lies is not the 'new' part, it's the medium that changed.
My point being . . . No matter how you dispense the knowledge there will always be a way for management to exaggerate their fighters' resumes.
If it created good match-ups and packed venues are we sure it was a bad thing?
Is promotion bound to ethical behavior? Usually not.
The Ring scandal was boxing as usual. It will happen again just by a different method, a different vessel.
You want the NBA/NFL then create the league. I don't want one. I love prize fighting with all its w-arts. There is always something to 'jaw' about.
Last edited by Willie Pep 229; 11-13-2024, 05:14 PM.Comment
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