How can the RING possibly justify ranking Cotto as the #1 Junior-Middleweight?

[ИATAS]

Nope. Wlad somehow became the RING champ by beating #3 ranked Chagaev in '09.

Can't recall what the RING's reasoning was for awarding Wlad the RING belt for beating the #3 guy.

But this proves my point about the RING and their inconsistency.

Still the lesser of the evils compared to the alphabet organizations though.

ah yes, that's correct my mistake. Sultan Ibragimov was the first unification bout in some years.

Their reasoning was because Wlad and Vitali will never fight. The Ring has always stated that the winner of a #1 vs #3 can win the Ring Belt in some rare occasions, and this was one of those occasions being that two brothers will never fight.

From The Ring:

Championship vacancies can be filled by winning a box-off between THE RING’s Nos. 1 and 2 contenders, or , in certain instances, a box-off between our Nos. 1 and 3 contenders.

Nigel Collins, Editor-in-Chief of THE RING magazine, also confirmed that Klitschko, rated No. 1, and No. 3 Chagaev will fight for the championship.

“THE RING magazine will recognize the upcoming bout between Wladimir Klitschko and Ruslan Chagaev as being for the vacant RING heavyweight championship of the world,” Collins said. “Usually, we require a match between the No. 1 and No. 2 contenders to fill a vacancy. But in certain circumstances, we will recognize a match between No. 1 and No. 3, and this is one of those circumstances.

“Wladimir is THE RING’s No. 1 heavyweight contender, and his participation is mandatory, but as the No. 2 contender is his brother, Vitali, and the brothers have stated many times that they will never fight, a match between Wladimir and No. 3 contender Chagaev meets THE RING’s criterion.”

[IronDanHamza]

The lineage doesn't just vanish and no longer exist when a guy moves up or vacates, it gets passed on to the next in line. And it's not about the lineage of one single alphabet title.

I'm following the lineage since Winky Wright, the last RING champion vacated.

When Winky moved to middleweight, the lineage goes to the next line which was Ouma.

Ouma got beat by Karmazin.

Karmazin got beat by Spinks.

Spinks got beat by Phillips.

Phillips got beat by Williams.

Williams moved to Middleweight and vacated

Phillips was next in line, but he retired.

Spinks was ranked just below Phillips which means lineage goes Spinks

Spinks gets beat by Bundrage.

Bundrage holds the lineage.

Clear enough now?

What?