 |
| The Knockout By George Bellows |
The Transnational Boxing Rankings Board:
The Leather Anniversary
by Springs Toledo
by Springs Toledo
Sunday, October 11 marked the third anniversary of the
Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. Traditionally speaking, it’s the leather
anniversary. We’d prefer to ignore the modern gift idea devised by librarians
at the Chicago Public Library, namely glass. We neither live in such a house
nor have such a jaw. The leather anniversary. That’s more like it. Leather
doesn’t shatter and, when put to good use, it can dent a septum now and then. We
have striven to do just that, with affection, on behalf of thinking boxing fans
around the world. Our mission is threefold:
provide weekly rankings that are trustworthy and
authoritative, identify the true champions, and convince boxing that common
sense is making a comeback.
The board began in 2012 with twenty-five independent boxing
writers and historians representing twelve countries around the world. We’ve
grown since then. The number of
members now matches Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s number of wins at
forty-nine. We’re on five continents representing sixteen countries and the commonwealth
of Puerto Rico
On October 11, 2012
we published the first edition of our rankings. On Tuesday we’ll publish the
one hundred forty-ninth edition.
The rankings are the product of a weekly process that begins
every Sunday when record-keepers Mauricio Salvador of Mexico
and Ken Pollitt of the United States
email results of the previous week’s fights to the three chairs. (Filipino
Retech Son, our third record-keeper, monitors inactive fighters approaching the
one-year mark of removal.) After considering the week’s bouts and exits, the
chairs come up with proposals for rankings changes which are then posted on the
board’s forum. Over the next three days, members weigh in to accept, debate, and/or
advance their own proposals during a process that is both efficient and
democratic. The product is published every Tuesday without fail.
The product has not been without critics. Ranking boxing’s
best fighters and presenting them to the
world is an invitation for opposing viewpoints, so it’s to be expected. It’s
also
disagreeable minds coming to virtual blows over placements. If
the feedback received at
www.tbrb.org is any indication, these battles royal on the
board’s forum may be best practice for high-quality rankings. In fact, we have
been pleasantly surprised at how readily thinking fans have embraced this
initiative from day one:
“I just want to say thank you and good luck,” a fan posted
only hours after our inaugural
rankings were published. “[T]his is exactly what boxing
needs to start to repair the damage it has done to itself and to start the long
journey of rebuilding the greatest sport.”
“Love the new rankings!” said another. “Just when I thought
that there would never be an
entity whose rankings I could subscribe to with any
confidence this board is established.”
“This is a great service to the boxing community, well done!”
“I really hope that your organization takes hold and helps
reform boxing. I’ve been a boxing fan for about 30 years.”
“TBRB is revolutionary and despite the cynical view many
have of boxing’s future, TBRB is a beacon of light towards reforming the sport
we all love.”
“This is just a fantastic effort … I wish HBO, ESPN, and
others would adopt your rankings.”
“[I]t pains me when I see the state of what [boxing] has
become… Something like this has been needed for a long time.”
“I really like what the TBRB is doing and direct my fellow
boxing fans to find your rankings…”
The Transnational Boxing Rankings Board’s mission is one of
service to the sport. In an era where the concept of “champion” has been
devalued, where boxing historians sift through byzantine lineages of titlists
and only confuse themselves, we have systematically identified the reigning
true champions —the divisional kings™. Click on the “Successions” tab at www.tbrb.org to see who they are and how they got there.
Click on the “Charter” tab and be assured that they earn their status by
combat, not by appointment or political machinations; that they must either defeat
the previous champion or, if the throne is open, they must defeat the next-best
contender We have repudiated the idea that modern boxing politics precludes
such a strict #1 vs. #2 criterion when it comes to open thrones. Whereas three
years ago we recognized a total of four true champions, we crowned four more by
the time of our first anniversary and topped the total off at nine last May
when the first-ranked Mayweather defeated second-ranked Manny Pacquiao. Since
then, Danny Garcia abdicated the jr. welterweight throne and Mayweather
officially retired and left the welterweight and jr. middleweight
thrones open. Click on the “Rankings” tab to see which top-two contenders are
poised at the brink of royalty. Feel encouraged; only eleven matches need to
happen for boxing to have a full roster of divisional kings. There were eleven
matches at Manchester Arena Saturday night.
Judging by our well-documented tendency to point to boxing’s
golden past, it may be assumed that we’re a fraternity of old fogies. But don’t
be fooled; the average age of our membership is thirty-nine and the range is
college-age to retirement-age, which means we have both the agility of youth
and the experience of years on our side. How else could we reach back into
history, take hold of an informal term like “robbery” and formalize it to
address the problem of bad judging? The robbery clause in the charter strikes a
balance between due discretion and innovation and we didn’t stop there. Other
pressing issues in the sport have since been addressed with new clauses in the
charter:
* No Decision/No Contest
(February 2014). After a legitimate official authority declares a bout a “No
Decision” or “No Contest,” the fighters will return to the rankings they held
going into the bout. Under certain circumstances, the Board may adjust the
rankings, though not the order of said fighters, to reflect performances before
the bout was ended.
* Inactive champions (August
2015). If a champion is inactive in his division, attempts will be made to
contact the champion/designee for an official announcement or clarification of
his intentions. If none is forthcoming and the champion has not defended his
throne after 18 months, and the first- and second-ranked contenders meet, then
the official winner may become the rightful successor.
* Performance-enhancing drugs
(September 2015). If a contender fails a drug test
conducted by a legitimate regulator or a contracted
independent testing body (i.e. is found to have used a performance-enhancing
drug or masking agent) or is otherwise found to be in gross violation of the
rules and is suspended as a result, the board will summarily remove the contender
from the rankings. The contender will have to earn reentry at the end of the determined
length of suspension. Successful appeals will be honored and mitigating circumstances
considered by the chairs.
Common sense is poised to make a comeback in boxing. We need
your support. Spread the word about an organization that asks nothing in return
and rankings that Teddy Atlas said are the only ones to trust.
Visit our new, mobile-friendly website at www.tbrb.org often and share the page.
Join us on Twitter @TBRBoard.
Convince your friends and your friends’ friends to do the
same. Consider lacing up a pair of gloves and denting a septum or two if
reasoning fails. We can’t bail you out or pay your fine (we’re volunteers after
all) but we’d appreciate such an apt observance of our third anniversary.
No comments:
Post a Comment