Canelo still Ring Magazine 160lb champion

By Boxing News - 09/21/2016 - Comments

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By Jim Dower: Despite Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) vacating his WBC middleweight title and moving down to 154 to defeat World Boxing Organization belt holder Liam “Beefy” Smith (23-1-1, 13 KOs) last Saturday night, Ring Magazine has decided to retain the 26-year-old Canelo as their Ring middleweight champion in the 160lb division.

It’s more than a little controversial; however, as Canelo doesn’t hold a world title at 160 any longer after he vacated his WBC middleweight belt this year when ordered to fight Gennady Golovkin.

Besides being the Ring Champion at middleweight, Canelo is also rated No.1 by Ring Magazine at 154. The Ring junior middleweight title is currently vacant, but Canelo holds the No.1 spot after his win over WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith last Saturday. Having Canelo above quality junior middleweights like Jermall Charlo, Erislandy Lara, Demetrius Andrade, Jermell Charlo, and Julian Williams doesn’t make a lot of sense. Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya was touting Liam Smith as the best fighter in the 154lb division in the weeks before the Canelo-Smith fight, but I don’t think that was something that too many boxing fans agreed with. It made for interesting news to hear De La Hoya calling the little known Smith the best fighter in the 154lb division before Canelo fought him, but it was clear last Saturday night that the British is NOT the best fighter in the 154lb division.

As bad as Smith looked against Canelo, he might not even be the 10th best fighter in the division. Smith just looked like a decent contender, but not a really talented one. Before having Canelo put at No.1 at 154, he should have beaten a good junior middleweight like Jermall Charlo, Demtrius Andrade or Jermell Charlo. Beating Smith was too easy because he looked poor, and he had been looking mediocre even before he faced Canelo.

What’s hard to understand is why Golovkin isn’t the Ring Magazine middleweight champion. After all, Golovkin holds three of the four major world titles at 160 in possessing the IBF, WBA, WBC belts. Canelo briefly held the WBC title after beating Miguel Cotto in catch-weight fight at 155lbs. Canelo defended the WBC belt once against a welterweight in Amir Khan. It’s unclear why the World Boxing Council sanctioned the Canelo-Khan fight, given that Khan wasn’t ranked in the top 15 by the WBC at 160, and he had never fought in the middleweight division before.

“Canelo also retains his middleweight championship as per the RING’s championship policy, which states a champion can lose his belt if he ‘does not schedule a fight at his championship weight for 18 months (even if he fights at another weight),’” according to Ring Magazine from their website ringtv.com. “He has until May 21 of next year to schedule a fight. He’s expected to fight at middleweight on May 6.”

It’s nice that Canelo is allowed to keep his Ring Magazine middleweight title, but it makes no sense in real terms. How is it that Canelo is the Ring Magazine middleweight champion when he didn’t take on the fighter that is considered to be the best in the division in GGG, and he didn’t win the WBC title at the full weight for the 160lb division?

Canelo won the WBC middleweight title against Miguel Cotto at a catch-weight of 155lbs. If those two things weren’t enough for Canelo not to be given the Ring Magazine title, he now no longer is the WBC champion after vacating the belt and moving down to 154 to take on and beat WBO belt holder Liam Smith. You would think that Ring Magazine would then step in and have Canelo stripped of his Ring title so that Golovkin could or someone other fighter could step in and take the belt.
Here are the Ring ratings for middleweight as of this week:

Ring middleweight Champion: Saul Canelo Alvarez

1. Gennady Golovkin

2. Daniel Jacobs

3. Billy Joe Saunders

4. David Lemieux

5. Andy Lee

6. Chris Eubank Jr.

7. Peter Quillin

8. Hassan N’Dam

9. Avtandil Khurtsidze

10. Maciej Sulecki

It’s going to be interesting to see how much longer Ring Magazine will be keeping Canelo as their Ring middleweight champion. If Golovkin beats Daniel Jacobs in December, and then defeats WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in early 2017 to capture the last remaining world title belt in the 160lb division, it’s going to make Ring Magazine’s ratings look a little odd if Canelo is still the their Ring champion. It wouldn’t be much of a rating if Golovkin has all four belts in the 160lb division.

You’d hate to see a rating like the Ring ratings end up being marginalized and not appear relevant to what’s happening in the sport. For a rating to be relevant, it’s got to make sense to the boxing public. When you have a fighter like Canelo, who gave up his WBC 160b title when ordered by the WBC to defend it against Golovkin, still holding the Ring middleweight championship, it looks out of place. Ring should have waited until Cotto or Canelo fought Golovkin at middleweight before picking out a Ring champion for the 160lb division. At least if they had waited, you would have a champion that the boxing public would agree on. Canelo looks out of place as the Ring champion at 160. Even at 154, Canelo would out of place as the Ring champion for that division

Canelo arguably should have never been given the Ring Championship at 160 in the first place, because he beat Miguel Cotto to win the title. Cotto, 5’7”, was just a guy that beat a gimpy-legged 40-year-old Sergio Martinez in 2014, when he was literally and figuratively on his last leg. Martinez was a very good fighter during his prime, but he wasn’t the same guy after he injured his right knee in his 12 round decision victory over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in 2012. If Cotto had taken on and beaten Golovkin to win the WBC title at the full weight at 160, then it would have meant something for him to be the WBC champion. It’s not what happened. Cotto beat an old fighter with a bad knee at a catch-weight of 158lbs. Canelo then turned around and beat the 35-year-old Cotto by a 12 round decision last November to win the WBC middleweight title at a catch-weight of 155lbs.