“Hatton is The Ring champion, and as long as they both make weight, The Ring championship will be at stake,” the magazine’s editor in chief, Nigel Collins, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer . Pacquiao, The Ring’s top dog in the pound-for-pound class, held the magazine’s featherweight and junior lightweight belts in the past after defeating Mexicans Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez. Hatton will defend his Ring belt along with the fringe International Boxing Organization (IBO) belt against Pacquiao on May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.
potential 7 division champ only fighter to win linear 112 and 130...and possibly 140 and 147 best asian fighter all time
Pac will not win the linear 147 title IMO. Would have to beat Mosley to do that (or Cotto) and can't see either happening, although, to be honest Pac continues to surprise everyone so who knows? He certainly wasn't the 'Linear' LW champion!
bob arum would let pac fight cotto since cotto is on the verge of moving into other promotions and pac in close to retirement
But why fighters would rather have the alphabet titles? If you haven't notice, challengers would call out the champs with the alphabet title, not the ring belt..
The current Ring Belt holders have the following Alphabet belts... Ademek - IBF Pavlik - WBC, WBO Hatton - IBO Marquez - None Vazquez - WBC Calderon - WBO Only 3 of the 6 hold a major Alphabet title and yet all 6 are recogonised by most fans to be the best of their division or at least 2nd best. All of them are always called out. The Ring Magazine title is the hardest one to win as you have to beat the best. The WBC, for example, has the following as "World Champions" Giacobbe Fragomeni (Cruiser) Carl Froch (Super-Middle) Andre Berto (Welter) Timothy Bradley (Light-Welter) Humberto Soto (Super-Feather) Oscar Larios (Feather) Toshiaki Nishioka (Super Bantam) Daisuke Naito (Fly) Edgar Sosa (Light-Fly) Oleydong Sithsanerchai (straw) Now, there are some good names on there but how many do you regard as the best in their division? That's why the Alphabet titles don't matter anymore. The fans know it and so do the fighters.
