So, is The Ring magazine stripping Andre Ward?

[Cholo_cws]

Its adjustment to its rules a few years ago means that Ward falls foul of rule #5 (below) as I believe Ward's last opponent Edwin Rodriguez was ranked #7 and his previous bout is now over two years ago. The belt doesn't stand for much nowadays but I am curious to see if the once virtuous Ring goes ahead with this or breaks its own rules.

Here are the seven situations in which a champion can lose his belt:

1. The Champion loses a fight in the weight class in which he is champion.
2.The Champion moves to another weight class.
3.The Champion does not schedule a fight in any weight class for 18 months.
4.The Champion does not schedule a fight at his championship weight for 18 months (even if he fights at another weight).
5.The Champion does not schedule a fight with a Top-5 contender from any weight class for two years.
6.The Champion retires.
7.The Champion tests positive for a banned substance.

[ReggieDiggs]

If its labeled as "can lose his belt" or in a sort of way that suggests its not a definite thing I suppose he won't be stripped as the #2 guy @ the weight is pretty far down from Andre's #1 guy status. If its labeled as a definite thing then he gots to be stripped one would assume.

[Freedom2013]

The Ring will be very reluctant to strip his title because he's an American. Perhaps if he doesn't fight in 2015 they'll take it away.

[littlepug]

What's actually happening with ward is it managerial problems ?

[littlepug]

Sorry to go slightly off topic but been looking at wards record and he's only fought one guy with a losing record, not as good as Ali raymi but still......

[ReggieDiggs]

What's actually happening with ward is it managerial problems ?

I think James Prince is still his manager so unless he wants to wake up to a pit bull head in his bed he won't be having managerial problems. He's having promotional problems although with Dan Goosen passing I think its kinda up in the air the status of those problems now.

[stevedoc]

the ring is as bad as the WBC WBA IBF and so on ,it's all about money ,the ratings mean nothing

[Badhusker]

Imo, they should strip any current champion from not only their belts, but any pfp rankings if they have not been active for one year.

[Lackeos]

Awww, he fought the #7 SMW 11 months ago, cry me a river. He's not only the clear, clear, clear divisional #1; but the #2, whom he dominated, is retiring soon. There is a monstrous gulf in class between Ward and anyone that they could dream of handing Ward's crown over to, like JCC Jr. (lol, why would he be The Ring SMW champion?), Arthur Abraham (I seem to remember Ward and Froch both dominating his ass), Stieglitz (pretty much Abraham's equivalent, though with a 1-2 record against Abraham), or George Groves (I recall him getting knocked out in May).

Ward is the SMW, and it's extraordinarily not close.

[Tarkus]

Whats the point of the 3rd rule.

[ttornado]

Andre Ward did not compete in a super-middleweight contest when he dominated Rodriguez, because ‘La Bomba’ weighed 170lbs, which meant that rule 4 was broken.

The rule says 'schedule', the fight was scheduled at SMW.

[Cholo_cws]

I wanted to highlight that I think The Ring have made a rod for their own back. It was only Wladimir Klitschko's scheduling of his fight in November last year with Alexander Povetkin that saved The Ring from a similar situation - as Kilitschko's previous top 5 opponent was back in July 2011 against David Haye. Under this policy they'd surely have been stripping their champions of the past on a regular basis - Larry Holmes probably for one.

[ttornado]

So a fighter can keep “scheduling” bouts and not actually fight at all and keep satisfying situations 3, 4 & 5?

The rules are so vague, that they wouldn't stop that happening.

[ikorolev]

So a fighter can keep “scheduling” bouts and not actually fight at all and keep satisfying situations 3, 4 & 5?

Ward fought at SMW. His opponent not making weight was not Andre's fault.

[crusader]

The wording of those 'rules', if it's as given here, is laughable. By simply saying a fighter 'can' be stripped in those situations, they're not outlining any conditions that one must fulfill to keep their belt nor are they excluding any other possibilities. It would be 100 percent consistent with the language given above to say 'ya, they can be stripped in this situation but we're not going to do it' or 'ya, this isn't listed as one of the strip-inducing situations but we're going to strip them anyway.'

Seems to me like those seven situations represent an attempt to put a mask of credibility on largely unrestricted decision making power.

[crusader]

The Rodriguez fight was still sanctioned as a SMW title bout by the WBA, so I think there's a case that it should count as a SMW bout. More importantly, since this is a matter of the The Ring following their own guidelines, which as given above don't oblige them to do anything, is there evidence that they didn't consider it a SMW bout?

[ikorolev]

So a fighter can keep “scheduling” bouts and not actually fight at all and keep satisfying situations 3, 4 & 5?

Ward fought at SMW. His opponent not making weight was not Andre's fault.

I am discussing the literal interpretation of the Ring Magazine rules. I could not care less about "fault", because it doesn’t directly relate to the sentence that you have quoted.

... and Ward literally fought at SMW. If another fighter didn't make weight doesn't matter.

[Butterbean]

Wards done. He wont fight at top level again. Thank god for that. Now It would be nice to see a top smw with good skills AND some balls. Have a nice retirement son of a billy goat.

[SenorPipino]

Wards done. He wont fight at top level again. Thank god for that. Now It would be nice to see a top smw with good skills AND some balls. Have a nice retirement son of a billy goat.

He ain't going anywhere...at least not permanently.
Andre Ward is the 2nd best fighter in boxing. The man that Triple G has nightmares about. There's still a lot of money to be made and I expect he'll start cashing in again by mid-2015.

[ikorolev]

Wards done. He wont fight at top level again. Thank god for that. Now It would be nice to see a top smw with good skills AND some balls. Have a nice retirement son of a billy goat.

He ain't going anywhere...at least not permanently.
Andre Ward is the 2nd best fighter in boxing. The man that Triple G has nightmares about. There's still a lot of money to be made and I expect he'll start cashing in again by mid-2015.

By that time he may agree to take 40% of a purse to get beating from GGG.

[SenorPipino]

Wards done. He wont fight at top level again. Thank god for that. Now It would be nice to see a top smw with good skills AND some balls. Have a nice retirement son of a billy goat.

He ain't going anywhere...at least not permanently.
Andre Ward is the 2nd best fighter in boxing. The man that Triple G has nightmares about. There's still a lot of money to be made and I expect he'll start cashing in again by mid-2015.

By that time he may agree to take 40% of a purse to get beating from GGG.

Do you have some sort of internal alarm that awakens you the moment a Russian is mentioned?
It's early. Get some sleep, amigo. That way you'll be emulating what Golovkin and Kovey would do against Ward and Hopkins respectively.

[Bard of Boxrec]

Do you have some sort of internal alarm that awakens you the moment a Russian is mentioned?
It's early. Get some sleep, amigo. That way you'll be emulating what Golovkin and Kovey would do against Ward and Hopkins respectively.

Lol. The only folks those guys are putting to sleep are the viewers.

[ikorolev]

Ward and Hopkins

Lol. The only folks those guys are putting to sleep are the viewers.