Ring Magazine question. Show of hands?

Question

I'm doing an article on East Side Boxing about Oscar De La Hoya's purchase of Ring Magazine and I would like a general consensus. How many of you are going to pull your support of the Ring championship as a result of this dubious action?

Answer 1

One thing I can tell you sir, I bought my last Ring magazine. With everything available for free on the internet, it doesn't exactly make me want to drive down town and find a place to park or catch a bus to pay $5 for something that I can do at home. I loved how gritty and crucial they could be you know? Like no holds barred type sh)t. Now, that De La Hoya owns it, do you think for a second they are going to say one of his biggest draws is an undercover tomato can? Do you think that Golden Boy fights may be hyped just a LITTLE bit more? Do you think if one of his events looks like a snore-fest, the Ring will advise you not to watch it? Do you think owning Ring is a nice angle to use to run other promoters into the ground? King is old and will not be around forever. And we know about De La Hoya and Arum's relationship. I could really go on and on about that, but De La Hoya I think will be to boxing as Hitler was to Germany in the "What I say goes" propaganda way. That brings us to the Ring Championship. Like that won't be manipulated a little bit in De La Hoya's fighters' favor. It used to mean something after it's reinstatement in the days of 4(or more) titles in 13 divisions. But now the Ring in my opinion has fallen right in line with the rest of the "alphabet soup". Well, that's my opinion anyways. If a fighter/promoter owns such huge boxing publication, it would be a fool to think he wouldn't use it to his advantage, so I have no more respect for it and I will never buy another copy again.

Answer 2

I think that I would..... when I was a young teenager in the early-mid '60s; I used to visit the old Ring Magazine Office which was located over the old Madison Square Garden on 49th Street in NYC. It was a small office area which also consisted of the Ring Museum which was free & displayed items such as a Championship Belt presented to John L & a cast of Primo's Fist, etc.. You could also see Nat Fleischer sitting at his desk banging away on an old manual typewriter. On one visit , I bought 4 of Nat's Books ( 3 Sockers in Sepia + 1 Benny Leonard Bio ) for a total of $ 2.50. Although those Books were printed in the early '40s; I still have them and they serve to remind me of the Great History of Ring Magazine & Madison Square Garden when it was still referred to as the " Mecca of Boxing ". I am afraid that if Golden Boy Productions purchases Ring Magazine.......it may completely destroy any vestige of this history that Ring Magazine may still posess.

Answer 3

I'll definitely consider it. DLH hasn't proven to be as opportunistic or dubious a promoter as King or Arum as of yet, but he's still a promoter and promoters(along with the alphabet organizations) have been responsible for the plummeting credibility of our sport for decades.

The Ring is one of the last bastions of purity and tradition in our sport(even the Hall of Fame is corrupt!). I don't see how a promoter purchasing and controlling it can come to any good. But I'll maintain support for its recognized champs and rankings until I smell something rank. With promoters involved, that shouldn't take too long.....

BTW...an very important question and thanks for asking it.

Answer 4

I'm not. Ring magazine needs new onwership. My god they were so far behind on the internet.

As long as their is a process in place to seperate ranking divison and autonomy and this is transparent for the whole world to see it can be okay. It has to be clear as day though who is ranking and why they are independent.

Answer 5

I probably will depending on how obvious golden boy manipulize the rankings. Ring magazine is praised for being legimate but now what are we suppose to say for a magazine who has to evaluate and criticize its owner.

Answer 6

Like the great Patrick Henry once said, "I smell a rat!"