Should The Ring Mag Vacate the Titles held by their Inactive(1 yr) Champions?

Who cares what they do? It's just a publicity stunt from a magazine, nothing more. It adds to the hype but doesn't alter any fighter's behaviour, so...who cares?

 

Good post.:yep

Good points about the LHW Ring Title. I hadn't thought about it, but like you say, it's been "****" for a long time now. Including Bernard's "reign" and Super Joe.

What is it now, surely vacant? (sorry haven't checked recently)

 

You drive a good bargain....

and...you've got me thinking about it. for sure.

BUT, I still like to think the Ring Belt is GOOD for boxing overall. Even though I can see the flaws (nothing's ever perfect, is it?), it is good for clarity in a lot of cases. While there are obvious problems, it still ends up USUALLY that the cream of the crop has the Ring Belt ("prize")...so the desired result is then met in that case. IMO.

 

Yes, it's vacant, Cazlaghe retired.

 

thanks my man. Kind of figured (once actually thought about it). But like dude above was sayin', the LHW Ring Belt has been on an unusual ride since Tarver. I know for sure atleast that both Mr. Hopkins and Super Joe held that title (cream of the crop, IMO) WITH OUT holding any ABC' at the time.:think

One can call that situation unique, if nothing else.:yep

 

The recent history of the LHW was that Jones held it along with the alphabet titles....Tarver won it along with the ABC's from Jones.........Tarver became a movie star and got stripped of all his belts except the ring.......Hopkins won it from Tarver and was recognized as 'true' LHW champ........Hopkins defended it against Winky Wright........Calzaghe won it from Hopkins.

As another poster alluded to earlier at a different weight, not only is it vacant now, but unless someone unifies the belts it stays vacant because Hopkins is #1 contender and seems to have no intention of fighting Chad Dawson or Glen Johnson to recaim it. If he changes weight then Dawson and Johnson could fight for it but as things stand there is no LHW champ and won't be anytime soon.

It's a bit weird in a way that compared to the other belts, tthe Ring one seems to be harder to win but easier to hold on to.

What I think is also curious to say the least about the LHW belt is that the Hopkins-Winky fight wasn't even at 175, it was a 170 catchweight but the belt was still on the line. If the Winkster had won it he may well have refused to go up to 175 to fight any natural Light-Heavies, giving the likes of Chad Dawson even less opportunity to become recognised as the 'true' world champion.

Seems far from ideal to me. That said, having one title which is seen as better than the rest in most ways is a good thing or boxing overall.

 

I think we should seriously do this. We'd be doing something good for boxing and get something positive for ESB to be known. I'd be in for doing it.

 

It would be a very big effort and require a fair bit of cash. The ring obviously has it's magazine sales and stuff to finance it's outgoings and a reputation built up over a much longer history than ESB.

Do you really think ESB would be regarded as anything other than a WBU type organisation to begin with?

 

If Ring magazine actually made a contract belt that you could lose in the ring then I'd be in favor of a stiff fine against inactive fighters... say, after about 8 months or so. But you could never get me to agree to flat out stripping a champion unless the fighter happened to go to prison or something. You really **** with the order of things when you do something like that. Like I said, a belt should be lost in the ring otherwise it creates great confusion.

 

The difference is ESB would be a lot closer to real ratings than the WBU, the IBO has good computer ratings, but this is where an ESB belt comes in. It would be like the IBO except decided and given out by noncorrupted humans thinking objectively. But I'd be in for doing this if anyone else is interested, I obviously am a college student who makes little money but to help perform this would be an honor.:good

 

It depends on how long a fighter has been inactive and for what reasons.