It will look as silly as now when the ratings won't include a world champion when a 18-months lay-off is accepted. True, but that won't happen nearly as often. Maybe instead of just dropping people and then reinstating them when they fight again, hit them with a penalty after 12 months, increase it...

For better or worse, in 21st Century boxing, 12-month layoffs aren't that uncommon. Even 18 months isn't that rare.

I understand the rule, but it looks a little silly to have ratings that don't include the true middleweight champion and the consensus top cruiserweight.

If you want a one-line description of this fight for the database: Canizales down in 2nd, gets up and KOs Lora with one punch. That was the first fight I ever covered for AP. Twenty minutes after the knockout, Lora still thought he was Batman. He got careless after putting Gaby down, and he got pulv...