The Ring magazine has awarded world championships in professional boxing within each weight class from its foundation in 1922 until the 1990s, and again since 2001. These titles were at one point intertwined with the lineal championship of a weight class, but have since become distinct from each other.
Contents
History
The Ring began awarding world championship belts in 1922. The first Ring world title belt was awarded to Heavyweight Champion Jack Dempsey, and the second was awarded to Flyweight Champion Pancho Villa. The Ring stopped giving belts to world champions in the 1990s, then reintroduced their title in 2001 yet ignored the current world championship lineage.
The Ring soon introduced a championship policy. A vacant title is awarded only to the winner of a fight between The Ring's No. 1 contender and No. 2 or the No. 3 contender. The ratings are compiled by the magazine's Editorial Board, with the participation of The Ring Ratings Panel of boxing journalists from around the world.
The Ring stated that their title was "intended to reward fighters who, by satisfying rigid criteria, can justify a claim as the true and only world champion in a given weight class". However, many boxing journalists complained that The Ring ignored the current world championship lineage when they started awarding titles again. A controversy described by Cliff Rold of BoxingScene.com is for example, the "world" light-heavyweight title was considered vacant from the time Michael Spinks went up to heavyweight in 1985 until 1996. While the Cyber Boxing Zone and the International Boxing Research Organization considers Virgil Hill's defeat of Henry Maske (who were the two highest rated light-heavyweights) as the beginning of the new lineage, The Ring controversially awarded their newly reintroduced title to Roy Jones. In 2002, The Ring editor, Nigel Collins, acknowledged that if their championship policy was in place in 1997, Dariusz Michalczewski, who defeated Hill, "probably would have been The Ring Champion."
In 2007, The Ring was acquired by Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Enterprises, which includes Golden Boy Promotions, one of the most success promotional companies in boxing. Golden Boy has publicized The Ring's World Championship when the title is at stake in fights it promotes (such as Joe Calzaghe vs. Roy Jones, Jr. in 2008).
In May 2012, citing the number of vacancies in various weight classes as primary motivation, The Ring unveiled a new championship policy. Under the new policy, if the No. 1 and No. 2 contenders choose not to fight one another and either of them fights No. 3, No. 4 or No. 5, the winner may be awarded The Ring belt.
There are now also seven ways that a boxer can lose the title.
Some boxing journalists are extremely critical of the new championship policy and state that if this new policy is followed, the Ring title will lose the credibility it once held.
Junior bantamweight
The Ring has not yet awarded a championship in the junior bantamweight division.
Strawweight
The Ring has not yet awarded a championship in the strawweight division.