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? Edit: And does anyone know where i can find their rankings from back in the day? (given they had these)
How far back you talking about mate? Go to google news and look up "boxing rankings" in the Archives, and there should be a ton of newspaper articles reporting the rankings.