Do you rate the Ring magazine belt ?

Why should we ignore fighters who won their Ring Belt BEFORE these changes were made? :huh

 

Because it was never a real world championship.

 

What's the difference between the lineal championship and the Ring championship?

 

The only two fighters who won the Ring championship before the policy changes were officially made last year were Yoan Pablo Hernandez and Danny Garcia, who won vacant championships earlier that year in what the Ring considered exceptional circumstances. Number 2 Hernandez fought number 3 Steve Cunningham when number 1 Marco Huck went to heavy for just one fight, which shouldn't have been reason for him to lose his ranking. Garcia and Khan fought for the Ring title as the number 2 and 3 ranked contenders, when Lamont Peterson was number 1. They made their exception because Peterson tested positive for PEDs.

 

The only two fighters who won the Ring championship before the policy changes were officially made last year were Yoan Pablo Hernandez and Danny Garcia, who won vacant championships earlier that year in what the Ring considered exceptional circumstances. Number 2 Hernandez fought number 3 Steve Cunningham when number 1 Marco Huck went to heavy for just one fight, which shouldn't have been reason for him to lose his ranking. Garcia and Khan fought for the Ring title as the number 2 and 3 ranked contenders, when Lamont Peterson was number 1. They made their exception because Peterson tested positive for PEDs.

 

They are not interchangeable terms.

The lineal championship (also sometimes mistakenly called "linear" championship, with linear referring to something moving in a straight line usually in a physical/graphical rather than abstract sense...which has probably helped with its constant misuse and conflation with "lineal" over the years, as its definition can sort of be stretched to fit the context of the phrase) means you can trace the lineage back to an established undisputed #1 division ruler by determining who "beat the man who beat the man who..." as far back as you can, the deeper in history the better. Of course you don't really see a lot of unbroken lineages these days with all the politics, the ABC mess, sometimes with multiple versions of the same belt, guys retiring while champ or getting stripped, etc.

The Ring belt is just some trinket handed out by some journalists, which gets horribly overrated because of the staying power of the magazine's former reputation from generations bygone.

 

I used to, but not any more. They have messed around and changed policies, making it easier to win. I see it as just another belt now.

And there remains a clear conflict of interest when a magazine owned by a promotional company is handing out belts. Anyone who cannot see that is either refusing to or is blind.

 

Also, I follow the Transnational Ratings at the moment. A lot more faith in those rankings.

 

I rate what I believe is the true lineal title.

I don't think Danny and Mikey Garcia and Yoan Pablo are real lineal champions despite being the Ring champs.

 

They aren't perfect, but they're good.

 

:good

 

Sorry, but this is incorrect. You need to do more research. And I am not talking about in the last year I am talking about fighters that won their ring belts BEFORE the changes period not just in the last year.

 

Before these changes it was just as real as the WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO. More so in fact as they didn't make up the rules as they went along like the ABC Orgs did which was quite refreshing.

 

Its a good indicator of who is the guy in each division so yeah I rate it but it is by no means the be all and end all.

 

I got the dates wrong and you're right, Danny Garcia beat Khan in July 2012, two months after the changes were made.

But Hernandez beat Cunningham to undeservadly earn recognition by the Ring as champion BEFORE the changes, in February 2012.

I didn't clarify why the the Ring's recognition of Wladimir Klitschko as champion should be ignored. Wladimir was given the vacant Ring championship in 2009, when he beat number 3 contender Ruslan Chugaev. But I agree with the TBRB that he should not be recognised as champion without beating the number 2 contender, his brother.

Despite Zsolt Erdei's claims, the legitimate light heavy championship can be traced from Roy Jones in 2001 to Joe Calzaghe in 2009. When Calzaghe retired, Chad Dawson was the top contender, Glen Johnson and Jean Pascal were either number 2 or 3, and Hopkins hadn't done enough at light heavy at the time to be better than number 4. Johnson lost to Cloud in 2010, then a week later Dawson beat Pascal to earn the legitimate championship, whether it was recognised as such by the Ring or not. Dawson then lost to Hopkins, beat Hopkins, then lost to current champ Stevenson.

The Ring championship can be ignored at super middle without any confusion about Andre Ward's status as the legitimate champion. Ward and Froch came out of the Super Six as the clear top two contenders, and when Ward beat Froch he became the legitimate champion.

As can the Ring championship be ignored at middle, as the championship lineage goes directly from 2001, when Hopkins beat Trinidad to clean out the division, to Sergio Martinez today.

Donaire was ranked number 3 by the Ring at junior feather when he beat number 1 ranked Nishioka, while the TBRB interestingly had Donaie at number 2. Even if the Ring awarding their vacant championship to the winner of a fight involving number 1 and 3 ranked contenders should be questioned, there is no doubt that Rigondeaux and Donaire were the top two contenders when Rigondeaux beat Donaire, so the Ring championship can be ignored while still recognising Rigondeaux as junior feather champion.

Akira Yaegashi's championship lineage at flyweight can actually be traced back to 1975 when Miguel Canto was champion!

Ring championships outside of the cases of Klitschko and Hernandez or previously awarded in divisions outside of the five in which there are currently legitimate champions are irrelevant. My statement was that the Ring championship should NOW be completely ignored.