Originally posted by fitzbitz
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I agree that The Ring's ratings and championship policy is no more than a stop gap, but it's a bloody good stop gap; and in terms of being able to say who the "real" champions are at each weight, or who the real #1 contenders are, when the championships are vacant, The Ring's ratings are easily the best game in town, despite their flaws.
I agree that a regulatory authority with a mandatory system is needed, and the alphabets are a necessary evil - I just wish someone could think of what could be done, practically speaking, to force them to be less evil, and to reduce their number (the sheer number of them is a big part of the problem). Until that happens, though, I think The Ring's ratings and champions have a very important function, and I wish that more mainstream journalists could be educated about their importance. In short, I think absolutists on either side are misguided:
On the one hand, many boxing journalists completely ignore The Ring's champions (including most journalists in the UK), and that's wrong. For example, many journalists claimed the Pacquiao was only fighting Hatton for his IBO title, ignoring the fact that Hatton was the lineal world champion at that time; and also claimed that Froch was Britain's only world champion at that time, despite the fact that The Ring and most other independent ratings rated Froch outside the top 5 at his weight prior to the Taylor fight, and even now don't rate him #1, whereas Hatton was a real world champion.
On the other hand, many fans and a few journalists, including those who work for The Ring, pretend that The Ring's championship policy can eventually replace the alphabets, and I agree with you that that is also completely wrong.
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