There was a debate a few months ago when I announced that the BWRP would not crown champions. In his article today the editor-in-chief, Eddie Goldman, addressed this very point:
a portion of the article is below- or you can click on the link to read it in full: http://www.boxingranks.com/Articles/Article610.htm One major difference we have with The Ring's rankings is that we do not designate champions. As journalists, we do the writing, interviewing, reporting, announcing, and voting. The champions should win their titles in the ring, and not on our keyboards and monitors. Until a fair and logical system of organizing title fights and crowning champions is established in the real world, we will not name champions. Of course, we recognize that in some weights there are fighters who are today universally recognized as being the best, such as Bernard Hopkins at middleweight, who was the only fighter in the BWRP to get every first-place vote in his weight class. But you didn't need the BWRP or The Ring to tell you that.
Some of The Ring's selections of champions have caused much controversy in boxing.
At lightweight The Ring's champion is Jose Luis Castillo, also the WBC champion. But our voters had him finishing behind Diego Corrales, the WBO champion. Corrales won by a fairly wide margin in our poll, signifying that Castillo is far from being recognized as the single most dominant fighter in the lightweight division, as Hopkins is at middleweight. Hopkins unified the alphabet titles in the ring, and not through any poll. That has yet to be done at lightweight. Who is actually the better between Corrales and Castillo, of course, is still just matter of opinion until they meet in the ring, as is planned for May 7 in Las Vegas.
