The ratings system is a joke!!

[Lance Uppercut]

These guys are ruining the sport, not only does a new world title belt pop up every week, the ranking are a joke.

I think that is why we will see a shift by the networks to stop recognizing these alphabet trinkets and simply recognizing the linear/The Ring/Universally recognized champions.

[jmbtandy]

These guys are ruining the sport, not only does a new world title belt pop up every week, the ranking are a joke.

I think that is why we will see a shift by the networks to stop recognizing these alphabet trinkets and simply recognizing the linear/The Ring/Universally recognized champions.

I would love to see this happen but I think there is just too much money involved for that to happen

[Bomp]

These guys are ruining the sport, not only does a new world title belt pop up every week, the ranking are a joke.

I think that is why we will see a shift by the networks to stop recognizing these alphabet trinkets and simply recognizing the linear/The Ring/Universally recognized champions.

This would be even more of a disaster cause they don't have a ranking system at all for fighters outside the top 20.
While the alphabets are pretty shit, they do offer a way for a fighter to work up a ladder.

The reason there are so many 'crap' fghters in alphabet top 10 is because they predominantly put fighters who favour their organisation above another. While this seems wrong, as long as the fans recognise that a single belt only represents dominance over a section of the competition (and as long as unification fights are regularly made) the hierarchy can still be maintained.

If there was only one organisation like 'ring' making the decisions, however impartial they would want to be, inevitably some good fighters will be frozen out of the loop due to a lack of marketability and it would be even harder to decipher who the best is. While the system at the moment is far, far, far from perfect, the solution isn't as simple as most fans believe.

[donnydarkoIRL]

I was going to post, but too exasperated to bother.

[Mikkel_K]

These guys are ruining the sport, not only does a new world title belt pop up every week, the ranking are a joke.

I think that is why we will see a shift by the networks to stop recognizing these alphabet trinkets and simply recognizing the linear/The Ring/Universally recognized champions.

This would be even more of a disaster cause they don't have a ranking system at all for fighters outside the top 20.
While the alphabets are pretty shit, they do offer a way for a fighter to work up a ladder.

The reason there are so many 'crap' fghters in alphabet top 10 is because they predominantly put fighters who favour their organisation above another. While this seems wrong, as long as the fans recognise that a single belt only represents dominance over a section of the competition (and as long as unification fights are regularly made) the hierarchy can still be maintained.

If there was only one organisation like 'ring' making the decisions, however impartial they would want to be, inevitably some good fighters will be frozen out of the loop due to a lack of marketability and it would be even harder to decipher who the best is. While the system at the moment is far, far, far from perfect, the solution isn't as simple as most fans believe.

While I hate to merely hit the 'agree'-button, I have to give my sympathies to this post. I agree completely.

Boxing needs a ladder. FWIW I kinda like the IBO ratings as well, hell even the Boxrec ones can be alright sometimes, if only to gauge where (very circa-ish) a boxer is on a ladder. Reducing everything to The Ring's ranking is essentially the same as saying that there would be no difference between Edison Miranda and Froch's recent Polish friend.

Also, the rankings and the organisations may be terrible, but it is only because the fans and the media lets them be. Noone has a problem with all the tournaments and trophies in tennis, because fans and the media know that winning at Eastbourne and winning at Wimbledon isn't the same thing, and that there is a clear hierarchy there. Why cannot sport journalist seem to comprehend that it is the same in boxing?

[Or is it only in Denmark that the mainstream medias tap into boxing once in while, complaining about the lack of transparency, the multitudes of titles etc, without attempting one bit to actually do anything to clarify things? If so, I apologize for my ramblings. But many boxing fans I've come across seem to not understand this either.]