By DEAT
The Ring belt used to mean something. The entire purpose was to keep politics and ridiculous mandatory challengers out of boxing, and award some semblance of legitimacy to real champions in a sea of unreal titlists. The Ring would point at the folly of the various organizations and mock their backdoor mechanations, dishonest maneuvering, and the dreadful manner in which they awarded, revoked, and otherwise played fast and loose with their so called “Championship Belts.”
That was, at least, until February of 2004. Lennox Lewis retired, permanently, leaving the Ring Magazine Heavyweight belt vacant. Editors and advertising executives began to sweat and fart at the prospect of having an empty belt at the premiere division in the sport. The Ring had Vitali Klitschko ranked number 1, based on a sterling record and a spirited defeat at the hands of Lewis the previous year. At number 2 was Chris Byrd, the uninspiring, featherfisted IBF champion who had himself dealt Vitali a humiliating defeat back in 2000. At number 3, both hilariously and suspiciously, was Corrie Sanders, the fat part timer who had demolished Vitali’s brother, Wladimir, more than a year before, and had not fought since.
The Ring mandates that the Ring Belt can ONLY be won by beating the current belt holder, or when the top two ranked fighters in the division compete against one another. They do have a mildly amusing caveat that states that under certain circumstances, the title may be won in a match between the number one and the number THREE ranked fighter in a division. The Ring doesn’t see fit to give any examples of when this is an acceptable situation. In the case of Vitali Klitschko, it seemed perfectly reasonable that he be required to beat Chris Byrd, an active champion who had already beaten him once, to win The Ring title. However, The Ring decided to simply sanction the bout between Sanders and Vitali as THE FIGHT for the belt. Now Sanders had no business being ranked third, fifth, or 12th by The Ring. The ranking was completely fabricated, and not in touch with reality. At the time of the match, he had gone more than 12 months without fighting at all, a circumstance that The Ring uses to REMOVE A FIGHTER COMPLETELY from the rankings. Of course, Vitali demolished Sanders, and The Ring belt took a huge hit in credibility.
Fast forward to 2009. Vitali has retired, unretired, retired, unretired, and then, dramatically, come back after years away to re-establish himself as one of the top fighters in the division. The Ring has Wladimir Klitschko ranked number 1, brother Vitali ranked 2, and European southpaw Ruslan Chagaev ranked third. The top two fighter have long maintained that they will NEVER fight each other. Their sibling affection for one another is occasionally creepy, and there is little doubt that a match between the two would be little more than a glorified sparring match.
And, on June 20, once again, The Ring stepped in and allowed a top ranked Klitschko to avoid fighting the number 2 ranked contender to win the belt. Wladimir beat Chagaev when Chagaev quit on his stool to defend his own two belts and pick up a third, this one handed to him by The Ring.
Here is the problem. Vitali is the LINEAL Ring champ. He hasn’t been defeated in the ring, and there is no reason, considering his own lofty ranking, that he not be involved in a bout for The Ring Belt. Normally, when a fighter refuses to fight another fighter, he is punished, either through scorn or through being penalized by the sanctioning body. However, paradoxically, The Ring saw fit to reward not one, but BOTH men for this flagrant disregard for competitiveness and the spirit of fair play. Wlad was rewarded with a far easier match than one against his gifted brother, and Vitali was also rewarded, as he seems to consider any victory for his brother a victory for himself and his family. Only a few of us boxing fans remember that, through a previous farce, Vitali is The Ring Champion Emeritus in recess. It would have been both proper and honest to leave the belt vacant until the top two active contenders faced each other. But the world of boxing is never honest nor proper.
I do not mean to suggest either man wasn’t, at the time, the best fighter in the division. But The Ring was supposed to keep all of the silly political hypotheticals out of the decision making that goes towards awarding belts. But when it comes to the Klitschko brothers, they simply throw logic, fairness, and their own rules out the window.
In many ways, The Ring still has the moral upper ground over the sanctioning bodies. The magazine doesn’t collect sanctioning fees from the contestants. However, in tough economic times, it must still struggle to be relevant in a sport that is in a death spiral towards permanent irrelevance. The Klitschko brothers sell copies, and The Ring has sold its soul, and its heavyweight title, to them.
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