I agree on LeDoux no matter what he did , a big fight and he was gonna be there And I do use WBA as much as I can find, which completely evaporates after 1975, and when they did 1972-75 -the ratings page was not dated ! WBA took Ali's title away twice, almost three times, Ali actually won that title 4 times, Liston, Terrell, Foreman & Spinks and they did not recognize Muhammad's 1970 comeback fights vs Quarry, Bonavena, and the battle of the century! -"SMOKIN" JOE FRAZIER The WBC followed suit, and actually took Quarry out of their 1970 ratings for I would presume, fighting and signing for Muhammad Ali !? -(They did not give a reason)
Oh yes I know that, had a big collection, still do , I just wished boxing would have had just one governing body, people looked too , for ratings etc. title bouts, People abuse me (really -name calling) Because I do not use WBA, WELL its impossible! and who really were the WBA? their tournament mean't nothing to Joe Frazier's 15 round NYSAC title bouts, Mathis, Ramos, Bonavena, Zyglewicz, and Quarry.
The WBA busted Frazier from #2 to #7 for no reason except a fit of pique when he refused to take part in their tournament. It made it hard to take them seriously.
I cannot agree more SEPTEMBER 1, 1967 THEY DEMOTED "SMOKIN JOE" FROM # 2 TO # 9. Absurd! Leave the man where he belonged if its a valid -"WORLD BOXING RATINGS SYSTEM!" Ring Magazine ::-ranked Muhammad Ali and Frazier accordingly, and Ring never took Al's title away to begin with!
It's a global sport. There aren't team owners. There aren't designated stadiums where the fighters compete. There isn't a designated season or a schedule of fights that can be posted from one week to the next a year ahead of time. Each fighter is an independent contractor, basically. And there are tens of thousands of professional boxers. Even in professional tennis, players can look at a schedule of events and choose tournaments they want to compete in or do what they have to do to qualify for those tournaments. There really is no way you can have on central governing body or one set of ratings that accurately rank each boxer. Fights take place all over the world every day. You can't plan events too far ahead. People drop out. It's not like a team sport where the team is still going to show up and play if someone goes down. I think we're stuck with what we have. That said, a number of sanctioning bodies have come up with good ways to find boxers from remote areas by creating ways for fighters who don't have a powerful promoter or TV dates to get rated. They initially created regional and national titles, and winning those different titles can get you a top 10 ranking. If you pick an org and follow their rules, you can take a winning fighter and move him up the rankings to a top spot n the world ratings by following their guidelines for winning regional belts. And you don't need to sign with a powerful promoter to get there. I think that's very cool. You can't get ranked in Ring ratings doing that. There's no system or set way to appear in the Ring rankings. Ring stopped searching for fighters to rate a long time ago. Now, it seems like they just pick from fighters the orgs decide to rate. Ring is pretty passive when it comes to rating boxers and, as a result, are often the last to rate someone and the last to remove that person from the ratings. You could start a whole thread on sanctioning body mandatory contenders who actually became solid champs or gave great champs harder fights than the "manufactured super fights" promoters have tried to put together, that often stink. The problem is the sanctioning bodies collect fees for just about everything, and where's there's money to be made there is corruption.
They actually took it away in 1970 and awarded it to Joe Frazier after he beat Ellis. Then, a few months later, Ali returned. Same thing happened with Tyson Fury. Ring rated Fury as World Champ when he was inactive in 2016 and 2017. Then they stripped him of the title early in 2018, and a few months later he was back in the ring. (LOL) Years from now people are going to look at those Ring Ratings and wonder how Fury went from World Champion in 2015, 2016 and 2017 in their ratings and then, in 2018, the year he fought three times, he was listed as the #1 contender. They screw up like every ratings body does.
Good point Mark! Also obviously since The Ring is under new ownership the ratings dependability may have suffered. What do you think Ronny?
