De La Hoya says rankings lack integrity and calls Ring belt “worthless”
Oscar De La Hoya has torn into Ring Magazine’s rankings, saying they no longer carry credibility. He also dismissed the belt tied to them, saying it “means nothing.”
Ring Magazine is not a sanctioning body, but its rankings have always shaped how divisions are ordered.
De La Hoya didn’t dress it up. “Who’s making up the rankings now,” he said. “I really do think that the Ring rankings are out the window. I don’t think there’s any integrity there, whatsoever.” Ariel Helwani
He went further. “The Ring belt, the Ring Magazine was everything for a 100 years, let’s say, and now it can just be in the trash can. Might as well. It means nothing. The Zuffa belt, this pen is worth more than the Zuffa belt. This here is worth more than the Zuffa belt. It means nothing, it’s just a name.”
Then came the part he usually avoids. “Do I regret it? The way things are going, I actually do. And I never regret anything,” he said. “When I had the Ring Magazine I kept its integrity. I kept the panel of writers from all over the world who were deciding who’s number one, who’s number two.”
He added, “I thought I was selling it to a person who really cared for the sport and was going to uphold its integrity, but I guess I was wrong.”
The message is clear. The rankings are being questioned, the belt is being questioned, and the man who sold it is now second-guessing the deal.
There is one detail that doesn’t go away. De La Hoya heard the same complaints when he owned it. Fighters linked to his side were always well placed, and rival promoters had plenty to say about that at the time.
Now the same criticism has circled back, only this time De La Hoya is on the outside looking in.
The rankings still dictate how contenders line up for title fights If fighters and promoters stop trusting them, the belt tied to that system drops with it.