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Introducing: The Boxing Scene Divisional Ratings
Cliff Rold
For all the good done the sport in the ring in 2007, confusion and dissension still reign in an area that they should not: boxing’s championships and rankings. Various press outlets, sanctioning bodies and historians all have their own take on the who’s and how’s of the subject; most corners make valid points.
It begs the question: What happens when those strands of thought are combined?
That’s the question at the heart of the first Boxing Scene divisional ratings. Based in spirit on the concepts at play in College Football’s Bowl Championship Series rankings, the ratings found here reflect a cross section of:
1. Historical lineage;
2. Press ratings from Ring Magazine, ESPN, SecondsOut.com, and the U.K.’s Boxing Monthly;
3. The ratings of the four major sanctioning bodies: the WBC, WBA, WBO, and IBF;
4. The computer ratings of the IBO and at boxrec.com; and
5. Quality components based on career winning percentage and results against current top ten contenders and/or a division’s champion where there is one.
These rankings ultimately will be no more definitive than any other set out there and already the first bone of contention can be presumed: given their known and suspected fraudulence on so many levels, why include the ratings of the various sanctioning bodies? The answer isn’t that difficult to come by.
Regardless of their legitimacy, sanctioning body ratings and titles have tremendous influence on what fights fans look forward to. A fighter may be little regarded amongst the press but, given the right ranking by a sanctioning authority, that fighter could be much closer to a title fight than more qualified peers. That reality of the game can’t be wished away nor completely ignored; heck, sometimes supposed mis-mandatories can even surprise as was the case with men like Ricardo Mayorga and Carlos Baldomir at welterweight in recent years.
Given those truths, the sanctioning bodies, for all their ills, are represented here. Also noted will be the owners of the various alphabelts across the sports seventeen weight divisions; those sometimes collide with legitimate World champs. World Championship recognition in these ratings is based on historical lineage. As will be seen, that is not always the same thing as being a Ring Magazine champion.
Enough, though, about semantics. There will be plenty at the end of the page about such things. Let’s skip to the main event and introduce the January 2007 Boxing Scene Ratings. [details]
Cliff Rold
For all the good done the sport in the ring in 2007, confusion and dissension still reign in an area that they should not: boxing’s championships and rankings. Various press outlets, sanctioning bodies and historians all have their own take on the who’s and how’s of the subject; most corners make valid points.
It begs the question: What happens when those strands of thought are combined?
That’s the question at the heart of the first Boxing Scene divisional ratings. Based in spirit on the concepts at play in College Football’s Bowl Championship Series rankings, the ratings found here reflect a cross section of:
1. Historical lineage;
2. Press ratings from Ring Magazine, ESPN, SecondsOut.com, and the U.K.’s Boxing Monthly;
3. The ratings of the four major sanctioning bodies: the WBC, WBA, WBO, and IBF;
4. The computer ratings of the IBO and at boxrec.com; and
5. Quality components based on career winning percentage and results against current top ten contenders and/or a division’s champion where there is one.
These rankings ultimately will be no more definitive than any other set out there and already the first bone of contention can be presumed: given their known and suspected fraudulence on so many levels, why include the ratings of the various sanctioning bodies? The answer isn’t that difficult to come by.
Regardless of their legitimacy, sanctioning body ratings and titles have tremendous influence on what fights fans look forward to. A fighter may be little regarded amongst the press but, given the right ranking by a sanctioning authority, that fighter could be much closer to a title fight than more qualified peers. That reality of the game can’t be wished away nor completely ignored; heck, sometimes supposed mis-mandatories can even surprise as was the case with men like Ricardo Mayorga and Carlos Baldomir at welterweight in recent years.
Given those truths, the sanctioning bodies, for all their ills, are represented here. Also noted will be the owners of the various alphabelts across the sports seventeen weight divisions; those sometimes collide with legitimate World champs. World Championship recognition in these ratings is based on historical lineage. As will be seen, that is not always the same thing as being a Ring Magazine champion.
Enough, though, about semantics. There will be plenty at the end of the page about such things. Let’s skip to the main event and introduce the January 2007 Boxing Scene Ratings. [details]
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