I don't really agree with you about the rankings, i think they do a good enough job with that, although ofcourse there are always things to disagree with, but that goes for every ranking anybody puts together. However i totally agree with you about enforcing mandatories, and actually i've been saying the same thing for years. The word mandatory kinda leaves a bad taste in people's mouths because of the horrible way in which they are enforced by the existing sanctioning bodies. But the whole idea of demanding that a champion fights a top challenger every 9-12 months or so is actually an excellent idea.
for me, 1 vs 3 when Vitali was in the picture was bull****. You had 2 guys, Wlad and Vitali, with very little seperating them. At that time I actually felt Vitali was better than Wlad even though I could see someone say otherwise. Then Wlad fights a guy who is clearly several levels below both, and gets crowned champion. You might as well have given it to Wlad from the beginning.
I agree that compared to the other belts, the ring is the best. But 1 vs 3 is still dumb. Why freeze out #2?
better than the rest but still not a legit title. a lot better than wbo, wbc and wba with the diamond belt, silver belt, interim, super champ crap. At least theyve stuck to the one belt for now
If we look at the ring champion picture, we can see that the ring belt is in the right hands. HW: Wlad is arguably the best HW and deserving of the belt because he was so dominating over the years (even during his brother's retirement) LHW: Now Johnson and Diaconu are out of the picture a clash between Chad and Pascal is meaningfull to prove who is the best LHW MW: B-Hop unified, Taylor took over, got KO'd by Pavlik, and Martinez schooled him LWW: Hatton was undefeated as a LWW until he met Pac, fair enough LW: Marquez beat Cassamayor who was regarded as the best LW at that time FW: Daisuke Naito was considered the best FW and got beat by Koki Kameda who in turn was whooped by Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. LFW: Calderon has been champ for 4 years before challenging for the Ring LFW title which he held on for 3 years and defended it 5 times.
It has it's problems - mainly that they can't force the champion to defend against the top challengers. It's rankings are much better than any of the alphabet organisations though and being Ring Champion impresses me more than holding any of the other titles. At least you have to earn their title by beating the divisions best.
It's the most legitimate of the major titles, but not by much (since goldenboy owns it). i prefer the IBO, but many consider it a fringe title.
The ring themselves pretty much said pressure from Shelly Finkel made the Klitscko vs Chagaev fight for the RING title. They didn't consult with the rankings comitee 1 person decided on it http://www.ringtv.com/blog/760/ring_ratings_update/ It made all the sense in the world to match up the two heavyweight beltholders, both of whom are well known in Germany, but at Klitschko's behest his co-managers Bönte and Shelly Finkel set out to learn whether the showdown met THE RING’s criteria to fill its vacant heavyweight championship before finalizing the bout. It did, but it took Bönte and Finkel a day to find out. “I was just about to leave the office on Thursday when the phone rang,” said Nigel Collins, Editor-In-Chief of THE RING. “The caller ID revealed it was Shelly Finkel. Well, I figured that he would leave a message and that I would get it first thing in the morning. “While driving home my cell phone rang. I looked and saw it was Shelly Finkel again. I don’t like to talk while driving, so I planned to call him back when I got home. “As soon as I got home (RING Managing Editor) Joe Santoliquito called and told me that maybe I should have answered those calls from Shelly. He said, ‘I just got off the phone with Bernd Bönte. They’re close to making a Klitschko-Chagaev fight but they want to know if it would be for the RING title.’” Although the fight had just become a possibility, Collins and the magazine’s editorial board had already considered the scenario. “Ever since Vitali Klitschko returned and earned a number-two ranking in our ratings I received a number of emails -- mostly from Europe -- asking if we would recognize the winner of a Wladimir Klitschko-Chagaev fight as our champion if it ever happened,” Collins said. Even months ago, the editors leaned toward yes. “We knew we didn’t have time to poll the Ratings Panel but we decided that the matchup was worthy because we really couldn’t come up with a good reason why it shouldn’t be for the RING title,” Collins said.
They only do that when there is a reason... 1) Wladimir has been the longest reigning HW champ today in a dominating fashion. This gives him the edge above his brother who was retired for 4 years. During Vitali's absent Wlad kept pummeling the other HW's. IMO Wlad is more deserving of the title, not better than Vitali. But you can't give the title for free, and if #1 en #2 don't wanna fight, we have #1 and #3. Chagaev was theoretically not champ anymore but he was undefeated and held wins over Ruiz and Valuev. 2) Dawson VS Pascal is meaningful now that Johnson lost to Cloud. But even if Johnson had won VS Cloud, we know that Chad beat Johnson twice meaning a third fight for the title is less interesting because the outcome would be obvious. Pascal on the other hand is #3 but he could aswell be #2. Undefeated as a LHW, 2 solid wins against Diaconu, and his only loss was an all out war against Froch. This makes the fight only more interesting and it is deserved IMO. 3) Okay, okay... Bradley VS Alexander for the strap, I read comments made in that "specific" thread and I know how you all feel about Alexander at this moment but here is my opinion about it and how I think it plays out. This one is about the rules in the book I think. According to the books he won his last fight even though his performance is at most C+ or C-, but anyway because of his performance his ranking (previously #2) switched with Amir Khan's (previously #3). He lost his ranking due to his shity performance and Khan moved up because he looked great against Paulie. But that doesn't mean Khan is better than Alex. Maybe Kotelnik is that good, and Paulie didn't had it anymore (style makes fights blabla). I'm not nuthugging Alexander but I think he should be given the benefit of the doubt whether he deserve to fight for the belt: a) Maybe Kotelnik was so good that made him looked bad b) He still got the win (in the books = making him not to drop that much in terms of ranking) c) Even though he was punched very ceanly in the face by Kotelnik, Devon was the busier man. I'm not saying Devon deserved the win (IMO Kotelnik did) but he wasn't dominated (that much) because of the lack of the punch output by Kotelnik and because Alexander was so busy that the judges might be fooled. d) I don't think it is right to say Khan is stronger based on both men's last performance (to know it they should fight it out) That's why the benefit of the doubt. So in some way I could say that Khan and Alexander both deserve to clash with Bradly for the title... Okay, I spat it out... attack me!!