Its adjustment to its rules a few years ago means that Ward falls foul of rule #5 (below) as I believe Ward's last opponent Edwin Rodriguez was ranked #7 and his previous bout is now over two years ago. The belt doesn't stand for much nowadays but I am curious to see if the once virtuous Ring goes ahead with this or breaks its own rules. Here are the seven situations in which a champion can lose his belt: 1. The Champion loses a fight in the weight class in which he is champion. 2.The Champion moves to another weight class. 3.The Champion does not schedule a fight in any weight class for 18 months. 4.The Champion does not schedule a fight at his championship weight for 18 months (even if he fights at another weight). 5.The Champion does not schedule a fight with a Top-5 contender from any weight class for two years. 6.The Champion retires. 7.The Champion tests positive for a banned substance.
The Ring is an American magazine and so will be very reluctant to strip Ward's title because he's an American.
Has the Ring ever stripped anyone for that rule infraction? I think technically Wlad broke rule five after his fight with Haye.
he was still being active and fighting Thompson was border line top 5 and Wlad basically cleaned out the diivision the rest of the top 5 were either not ready for wlad or already beaten by him
No, there wouldnt be any grounds to strip him because - 3.The Champion does not schedule a fight in any weight class for 18 months. 4.The Champion does not schedule a fight at his championship weight for 18 months (even if he fights at another weight). Ward could schedule a fight a year an a half after the Rodriguez bout and even if that fight were not to happen for another 6 months after, it will have been scheduled. What I was always unsure about was how Froch became the top fighter behind Ward at that time, even though he should be now
Thompson was ranked ten by Ring mag at the time of his second fight with Wlad. Wlad fought Povetkin a couple months after 2 years had passed since beating Haye.
He's coming up on a year of inactivity in November so yeah he should be stripped and dropped from the rankings.
I'm not sure they have ever enforced it, so it'd be weird if they did so for Ward. If that is the case, guys like YPH and even Wladimir would have probably technically lost their RING titles.
Thompson's second Wladimir fight was before that run where he beat David Price twice and Solis. He was 9/10 IIRC. Not top 5.