TRANSNATIONAL BOXING RANKINGS: SEVEN YEARS AND RUNNING
The Transnational Boxing Rankings Board this month celebrated its seventh year of providing fair, uncompromised boxing rankings and clear, singular divisional champions.
Comprised of 50 boxing writers and record keepers in 20 countries across five continents, the board has published weekly rankings in stark contrast to alphabet organizations like the WBC, WBA, WBO and WBF, who produce rankings wildly out of touch with reality and multiple “champions” per organization because they charge fighters sanctioning fees.
The board continues to offer fans and would-be fans a source of information to help them make sense of the sport, this year adding a feature on its homepage to alert them to upcoming fights involving ranked boxers and champions.
“I’m proud of our consistency,” said Cliff Rold, a founding member and chair of the Board, and the managing editor at BoxingScene. “The best thing we can do is present a fair set of rankings, unbeholden to anyone economically, and be there week in and week out. For fans of the sport who want them, our rankings remain and we recognize champions the easiest way possible: by succession or a 1-2 showdown. No franchises or regular titles to worry about.”
“We’ve proven we’re no flash in the pan: We’re at seven years and still going strong,” said Tim Starks, another chair and founding member of the Board, who created the Queensberry Rules boxing blog. “We’ve seen an impact in acknowledgement from fans, fighters and others of the value and validity of what we do. Even when someone doesn’t agree with our rankings — and it would be impossible for everyone to agree with every single ranking — I think we’ve established our credibility via the most sane and logical process for the subjective art of fighter rankings. We aren’t going away, and over time, we hope to keep winning over fans who favor fair rankings and solitary divisional kings.”
“Boxing fans are getting tired more and more by the scandal of alphabet soup” belts, said Board Chair Vittorio Parisi, a member of the editorial staff at boxeringweb.net. “Important magazines and websites now do not write the name of the belts beside the fighters in their rankings anymore. This show we are on the right part of the road and we have to insist in our mission for the best possible future for boxing.”
Said boxing author Springs Toledo, another co-founder who serves as in the Oversight role for the board:
“One motivation behind this initiative, for me at least, had to do with the future. At some point, rationality is going to prevail and future boxing writers and fans are going to be perplexed at what’s going on today. Boxing historians will have a resource in the Transnational Rankings — a better idea of where things really stood outside of the hype. This is why we’ve included the Successions tab and the monthly rankings archives.
I for one completely ignore the WBS ratings and the faux titles in my writing. The sanctioning bodies came into the sport in clown cars and made a joke of the structure. Speaking as a writer, the Transnational Rankings — buy design objective, authoritative, uncorrupted — removes the need to mention them. It cuts through the chaos.”
