Yes..it's a mess...but how do we fix it?

I think we're all in agreement that boxing needs reform, but how exactly? It's easier said than done. Sadly there's not one ranking organization with any integrity. They will rank fighters that have no business being ranked, ignore fighters with great resume's and make up or change their own rules & bylaws to put extra money in their coffers. Technically you can't put them out of business, but boxing is so inundated with them that they mean almost nothing now. Forget "The Ring" rankings now that GBP owns it. So what is the answer? To try & create one that is unbiased only adds to the mess. Who's got the answer?

The Ring rankings are still credible.

The Ring, or a sytem similiar to the Ring's, to be agreed to and recognized uniformly by the major broadcasters, with all others to be ignored.

SlickMoneyXL wrote:

The Ring rankings are still credible.

I disagree. Oscar has way too much influence. He has become just like any other promoter.

flapanther2001 wrote:

SlickMoneyXL wrote:

The Ring rankings are still credible.

I disagree. Oscar has way too much influence. He has become just like any other promoter.

Got an example?

SlickMoneyXL wrote:

flapanther2001 wrote:

SlickMoneyXL wrote:

The Ring rankings are still credible.

I disagree. Oscar has way too much influence. He has become just like any other promoter.

Got an example?

Well, to start with, he threw his own fighter under the bus when Mayweather decided not to even try to make weight vs Marquez.
Add to that the fact that no promoter that has a financial interest in any fighter should be allowed to have anything to do with the ranking system. There's too much at stake as far as mandatory title fights etc.

flapanther2001 wrote:

SlickMoneyXL wrote:

flapanther2001 wrote:

SlickMoneyXL wrote:

The Ring rankings are still credible.

I disagree. Oscar has way too much influence. He has become just like any other promoter.

Got an example?

Well, to start with, he threw his own fighter under the bus when Mayweather decided not to even try to make weight vs Marquez.
Add to that the fact that no promoter that has a financial interest in any fighter should be allowed to have anything to do with the ranking system. There's too much at stake as far as mandatory title fights etc.

I meant do u have an example of him fucking with the rankings?

Ortiz aint ranked in the top 10 at 140. Same goes for Juan Diaz at lightweight. Both Golden Boy fighters.

SlickMoneyXL wrote:

flapanther2001 wrote:

SlickMoneyXL wrote:

flapanther2001 wrote:

SlickMoneyXL wrote:

The Ring rankings are still credible.

I disagree. Oscar has way too much influence. He has become just like any other promoter.

Got an example?

Well, to start with, he threw his own fighter under the bus when Mayweather decided not to even try to make weight vs Marquez.
Add to that the fact that no promoter that has a financial interest in any fighter should be allowed to have anything to do with the ranking system. There's too much at stake as far as mandatory title fights etc.

I meant do u have an example of him fucking with the rankings?

Ortiz aint ranked in the top 10 at 140. Same goes for Juan Diaz at lightweight. Both Golden Boy fighters.

It would take far too much time to break all that down, but it's about credibility. On the subject of Ortiz, I remember Oscar being really mad at him after the Maidana fight. You don't think Ortiz should be ranked above Urango, Mabuza or Malignaggi?

flapanther2001 wrote:

I think we're all in agreement that boxing needs reform, but how exactly? It's easier said than done. Sadly there's not one ranking organization with any integrity. They will rank fighters that have no business being ranked, ignore fighters with great resume's and make up or change their own rules & bylaws to put extra money in their coffers. Technically you can't put them out of business, but boxing is so inundated with them that they mean almost nothing now. Forget "The Ring" rankings now that GBP owns it. So what is the answer? To try & create one that is unbiased only adds to the mess. Who's got the answer?

I see no evidence that Ring's ratings or champions have been poisoned by GBP ownership.

The only solution I can see is that HBO/Showtime/ESPN get together and tell Ring Magazine they will agree to refer ONLY to Ring ratings and ONLY to Ring champions if Ring will agree to keep the ratings process the purview of the independent advisory board.

Now WHY would the three networks do this? Why would they choose to market more fights as NON-title fights? To help crate what boxing is now missing. Household names. The sport doesn't need two, it needs ten. But with 88 strapholders out there only us geeks have the ability and desire to tell who the REAL guys are.

I think promoters, networks and ultimately fighters can all make more money with a bigger audience. But the creation of a bigger audience requires fewer big names, not six middleweight champions.

Canvas wrote:

The Ring, or a sytem similiar to the Ring's, to be agreed to and recognized uniformly by the major broadcasters, with all others to be ignored.

Damn, you beat me to it!

I actually also have a more radical idea. Abolish Olympic boxing and return the US amateur system to the way it was pre-1992.

marbleheadmaui wrote:

I actually also have a more radical idea. Abolish Olympic boxing and return the US amateur system to the way it was pre-1992.

Agreed

Ring's rankings are legitimate. Go through and tell me which guys from Golden Boy are too highly ranked, to the detriment of Top Rank, etc...., fighters.

This is going to sound harsh:

Eliminate Muhammed Ali as the face/ambassador of the sport. Leave him a pop culture icon but do not include him in any sort of current media. My mother stopped signing my boxing permission slip when I was ten because of Ali. Look he's a tragedy of the game. The NFL doesn't show images of Mike Utley in a chair or Michael Irvin and Lawrence Taylor in a jail cell in its promos or during a documentary. Boxing for reasons beyond me continue to exploit images of a Parkinson's ridden Ali. This is hardly the thing that is going to get people interested in the sport.

Good call on eliminating Ali.

As for Ali, I think it is a disservice to all fighting sports to have so much attention focused on a man that is ravaged from years of combat.

flapanther2001 wrote:

SlickMoneyXL wrote:

The Ring rankings are still credible.

I disagree. Oscar has way too much influence. He has become just like any other promoter.

Show me evidence and proof of how Oscar has influence of Ring's rankings.

HBO needs to make the best fight best

Fire Ross Greenburg! Don King would do a better job with their budget!

Don ing would make better fights after embezzling half of the budget

Birdofthad wrote:

Don ing would make better fights after embezzling half of the budget

He'd get Berto, Williams, etc in legit fights

But take half their purse lol

Fix boxing by establishing Dana White as boxing czar. That would be perfect because the UFC's system is so much better than boxing in general. I used to be a boxing fan, BUT................... (insert BS here).

love him or hate him Dana has cornered his market and stacks PPVs

Boxing is unfixable, and it will continue getting worse every year. More fighters seem to get less active in the ring, top guys are ducking each other way too often than before, theres not many popular fighters out there (mostly in the States) and the fact that everyone has their hand in the cookie jar is whats hurting the sport the most. Fighters barely take 50% of their payday. Taxes, advisers fees, management fees, Lawyer Fees, promoter fees, and the trainers cut just takes too much away from the guys putting their health on the line. I mean the real scumbags are the guys wearing the suits and not the guys in the ring trying to take each others heads off, even if some of those guys are killers, brutes, criminals, rapist and ect.

The ABC organization will only go away if they go bankrupt and thats it. the WBC looked awfully close to go that route, but they keep dodging bullets.

Birdofthad wrote:

love him or hate him Dana has cornered his market and stacks PPVs

Its because their fighters get paid very little. When you dont have to blow a big budget on the payroll, you can stack any card. Top Boxers in todays world would never settle for UFC contracts. To tell you the truth, some fighters are over paid and most MMA fighters are vastly underpaid.

It's all Manny Pacquiao's fault, he should have stayed away from that karaoke machine.