Trying again: Being relatively new to the sport, i want to ask; how was ratings/rankings conducted back in the day with only the NBA and NYSAC being there. Did they publish rankings or did they just sanction title bouts? I know the RING had rankings, but surely NBA or NYSAC had rankings too for each division? If so, when did they approve JWW and JLW as divisions since the RING waited a long time, considering Tippy Larkin was JWW champion in the 40's, but never recognised by the RING as anything other than a top WW contender. Hope someone finds the time to answer those questions. Especially the part about rankings, did they have any, did they publish them, how often etc? And does anyone know where i can find their rankings from back in the day?
Yes, the NBA used to publish quarterly rankings and made them public. Going into the 40's, they didn't use a numerical 1 to 10 ranking of the contenders (did back in the late 20's though, I do believe), but instead listed them under seperate categories. One set of contenders was the "logical contenders" group, which were fighters that were expected by them to soon get a shot at their titles. There you could find anywhere from one to three or four fighters named, or even none if no contender stood out as having a great case for a shot. After those fighters were named there would also be a list of fighters/contenders named in each weight class, and while the name of that group apparently changed on occasion, I've most often seen them referenced by the NBA as "outstanding boxers" of each division. Generally a larger group named than those that had "logical contenders" status, as you'd see five, six, seven, or even more fighters named under that category. They were basically the contenders that were deemed worthy of being mentioned, but not seen by them as having the strongest case to challenge the champions. There were no NBA "top 10" per se during that time, as the number of contenders varied in each weight class and/or quarterly ranking. But they were still, more often than not, much more aligned to what The Ring thought then than it is today with the ABC groups when it came to ranking the fighters. Besides them having meetings and then naming top challengers for title fights under their jurisdiction, I've never came across any NYSAC rankings.
Thanks alot. Do you know when they accepted JWW and JLW as divisions with champions etc.. I know Tippy Larkin won the World JWW championship in the 1940's, but looking through the RINGs yearly rankings, he just recognised as a top WW contender, rather than the JWW champ. When did the NBA recognise these divisions?
