 | |
| The Ring | |
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Boxing promotion Sports magazine |
| Founded | 1922; 103 years ago (1922) |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Turki Alalshikh (Owner) Rick Reeno (CEO) |
| Owner | Turki Alalshikh |
| Parent | The Ring Magazine FZ-LLC |
| Website | ringmagazine |
 Cover of the first issue | |
| Editor-in-Chief | Douglass Fischer |
|---|---|
| Former editors | Nat Fleischer |
| Categories | Sports magazine |
| Publisher | Stefan Friedman |
| Founded | 1922; 103 years ago (1922) |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Los Angeles,California Blue Bell, Pennsylvania Dubai,United Arab Emirates |
| Language | English |
| Website | Official website |
| ISSN | 0035-5410 |
The Ring (often calledThe Ringmagazine orRingmagazine) is aboxingmagazine, that was first published in 1922 as a boxing and wrestling magazine. As the sporting legitimacy ofprofessional wrestling came more into question,The Ring shifted to becoming exclusively a boxing-oriented publication.
Ring began publishing annual ratings of boxers in 1924. With its November/December 2022 issue, the magazine stopped publication of its regular monthly print issues and will remain a digital publication, offering occasional special interest print issues.[1]
The Ring, founded and published by futureInternational Boxing Hall of Fame memberNat Fleischer, has perpetrated boxing scandals, helped make unknown fighters famous worldwide, and covered boxing's biggest events of all time.Dan Daniel was a co-founder and prolific contributor toThe Ring through most of its history.
Another founding partner wasJohn L. "Ike" Dorgan (April 15, 1879 – December 27, 1960), a bookbinder, boxing manager (for Harry Ebbets andCharles Francis "Frank" Moran, known as "The Fighting Dentist"), press agent (for boxing promoterGeorge L. "Tex" Rickard),[2] and publicity manager for theMadison Square Garden. He remained with this influential publication until his retirement in 1930.[3]
The Ring refers to itself (and is referred to by others) as "The Bible of Boxing." During the Fleischer years, the contents page or indicia of every issue carried the claim: "The Ring is a magazine which a man may take home with him. He may leave it on his library table safe in the knowledge that it does not contain one line of matter either in the text or the advertisements which would be offensive. The publisher ofThe Ring guards this reputation of his magazine jealously. It is entertaining and it is clean."[4]
In 1972, following Fleischer's death, his son-in-law and managing editor Nat Loubet took over as publisher.[5] In 1977, Loubet launched three international editions of the magazine. TheSpanish version,Ring En Español, was published in Venezuela and distributed to all Spanish-speaking countries and the United States (U.S.) until 1985. There was also aJapanese version published inTokyo and aFrench version published inParis.[citation needed]
In 1977, managing editor ofThe Ring Johnny Ort,fabricated records of selected boxers, and elevated their rankings, securing them lucrative fights on the American ABC television network, as part of the United States Championship Tournament orchestrated by promoterDon King.[6][7] The deception was uncovered by boxing writer Malcolm "Flash" Gordon and ABC stafferAlex Wallau and the United States Championship tournament was cancelled by ABC.[8][9][10]
In 1979, the magazine was purchased from Loubet by a group led byDave DeBusschere andBert Sugar took over as editor. In 1983 Sugar was succeeded by futureNew York boxing commissionerRandy Gordon. By 1984 the publication was reported to be over $1 million in debt and a number of top salaried employees, including Gordon, were let go.Nigel Collins of the Ring's defunct sister magazineBoxing Illustrated took over as editor.[11] In 1989The Ring was purchased byStanley Weston's G.C. London Publishing (later known asKappa Publishing Group), which also publishedKO Magazine and a number of wrestling publications. KO senior writerSteve Farhood becameThe Ring's editor.[12] Weston was a sentimentalist and 52 years after joiningThe Ring magazine as a stock boy, Weston purchased the magazine that gave him his first job. He not only resurrected the magazine from its imminent collapse, he re-established the publication as the definitive source for boxing news. An outstanding boxing artist, Weston painted 57 covers forThe Ring with his first cover, a painting ofBilly Conn, for the December 1939 issue. Weston was also a photographer who, according to his own estimate, shot over 100,000 boxing photos—the majority of which are housed in the archives ofThe Ring magazine.
Sports and Entertainment Publications, LLC, a subsidiary ofOscar De La Hoya'sGolden Boy Enterprises, acquiredThe Ring,KO Magazine, andWorld Boxing in 2007. The magazine's rankings are recognized as "official" by some in the U.S. media, particularlyESPN. While some may see a conflict of interest in a boxing promoter being paymaster of what is essentially a magazine/rankings organization that awards world titles and belts, De La Hoya says that is not the case. "These magazines will be held in an editorial trust where they will be operating totally independent of any influence from me or others from the Golden Boy Companies as it relates to editorial direction or content". Also there is a 35-member ratings advisory panel, which include many of the media that cover boxing, who would prevent Golden Boy Promotions from using the magazine for self gain.[13]
The Ring was headquartered inBlue Bell, Pennsylvania until 2011 when it was relocated toLos Angeles.[14]
The magazine had a sister publication namedThe Ring Wrestling which came about due to professional wrestling writerBob Leonard contacting the magazine and expressing that it was too focused on boxing and not giving wrestling enough coverage. Nat Loubet served as the editor of the wrestling magazine as well.[15]
In December 2022,The Ring relocated from Los Angeles toDubai after discontinuing their regular monthly print issues in the United States.[16][shallow reference]
In November 2024,The Ring was acquired byTurki Alalshikh, chairman of theGeneral Entertainment Authority and a major figure in the global boxing renaissance. Alalshikh had already been instrumental in bringing major events to Saudi Arabia under theRiyadh Season umbrella. After the acquisition,The Ring began to evolve from a neutral publication into an active promotional brand. Under Alalshikh's direction, the magazine retained its editorial team and rankings panel but expanded its operations to include event promotion, branding partnerships, and cross-industry collaborations. The transition formally materialized in 2025 with the launch ofRing-branded boxing, with the first major event beingRyan Garcia vs. Rolando Romero – Fatal Fury in Times Square.[17]
Some of the boxers featured on the magazine covers have includedTommy Ryan,Salvador Sánchez,Jack Dempsey,Pancho Villa,Max Schmeling,Joe Louis,Sugar Ray Robinson,Jake LaMotta,Rocky Marciano,Willie Pep,Ingemar Johansson,Muhammad Ali,Alexis Argüello,Wilfred Benítez,Wilfredo Gómez,Roberto Durán,Larry Holmes,Marvin Hagler,Sugar Ray Leonard,Bud Taylor,Mike Tyson,Evander Holyfield,Floyd Mayweather Jr.,Thomas Hearns,Naoya Inoue,Roy Jones Jr.,Bernard Hopkins,Julio César Chávez,Félix Trinidad,Manny Pacquiao,Oscar De La Hoya,Mauro Mina andRicardo Mayorga. In 1978, boxerCathy "Cat" Davis became the first woman ever to be on a cover ofThe Ring, and she held the distinction of being the only woman featured on the cover of the magazine until January 2016, whenRonda Rousey joined her and also became the firstmixed martial arts fighter featured on its cover.[18]The Ring has used cover artwork created by famed artists such asLeRoy Neiman andRichard T. Slone.
On March 5, 2025,TKO Group Holdings (TKO) announced a partnership withTurki Alalshikh and Saudi entertainment conglomerateSela to launch a new boxing promotion in 2026.[19] Shortly after this announcement, rumors about disagreements between TKO'sDana White and Alalshikh about the promotion for a fight betweenCanelo Álvarez andTerence Crawford started circulating on social media.[20] These disagreements allegedly prompted Alalshikh to venture into boxing promotion himself under "The Ring" banner. The first event advertised underThe Ring banner in partnership withSNK took place on April 26, 2025, withEubank Jr vs. Benn – Fatal Fury at theTottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.[21]
On May 2, 2025, the second event inThe Ring's boxing series titledRyan Garcia vs. Rolando Romero – Fatal Fury in Times Square, took place. The event was co-promoted byGolden Boy Promotions,Matchroom Boxing, andTop Rank, and was again held in collaboration with SNK to promote the upcoming video gameFatal Fury: City of the Wolves.[22][23]
Ring III: Berlanga vs. Sheeraz was the third event inThe Ring's boxing series, and the first event to actively use "The Ring" branding for their event name. The event took place on July 12, 2025.[24]
On June 23, 2025, it was announced that the new boxing promotion partnership between Turki Alalshikh/The Ring, TKO, and Sela will be under theZuffa Boxing name.[25] The inaugural Zuffa Boxing event will beCanelo Álvarez vs. Terence Crawford – Once In A Lifetime on September 13, 2025, atAllegiant Stadium. As part of the buildup to Álvarez vs. Crawford,The Ring will hold The Ring Presents: The Underdog on September 11 atFontainebleau Las Vegas. The card will feature aWBO world flyweight title bout betweenAnthony Olascuaga and Juan Carlos Camacho.[26]
| Event | Date | Venue | Main Event | Co-Promoters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eubank Jr vs. Benn – Fatal Fury (also known asRing I) | April 26, 2025 | Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, UK | Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Conor Benn | Matchroom Boxing,Boxxer |
| Ryan Garcia vs. Rolando Romero – Fatal Fury in Times Square (also known asRing II) | May 2, 2025 | Times Square, New York City, USA | Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero | Golden Boy Promotions, Matchroom Boxing,Top Rank |
| Ring III: Berlanga vs. Sheeraz | July 13, 2025 | Louis Armstrong Stadium, Queens, New York, USA | Edgar Berlanga vs. Hamzah Sheeraz | Matchroom Boxing,Queensberry Promotions, Top Rank |
| The Ring Presents: The Underdog | September 11, 2025 | Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA | Anthony Olascuaga vs. Juan Carlos Camacho | Zuffa Boxing |
| Ring IV: Benavidez vs. Yarde – Night of the Champions | November 22, 2025 | ANB Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | David Benavidez vs. Anthony Yarde | Queensberry Promotions, Top Rank,Sela |
The Ring has its own championship belt in a given weight class whereThe Ring champion holds a lineal reign to the throne, the man who beat the man.The Ring began awarding championship belts in 1922. The firstRing world title belt was awarded toheavyweight champion Jack Dempsey and the second was awarded toflyweight champion Pancho Villa.The Ring stopped giving belts to world champions in the 1990s, then reintroduced their titles in 2002.
The Ring stated that their title was "intended to reward fighters who, by satisfying rigid criteria, can justify a claim as the true and only world champion in a givenweight class".[27] It echoed many critics' arguments that the sanctioning bodies in charge of boxing championships had undermined the sport by pitting undeserving contenders against undeserving "champions" and forcing the boxing public to see mismatches for so-called "world championships".The Ring attempts to be more authoritative and open than the sanctioning bodies' rankings, with a page devoted to full explanations for ranking changes. A fighter pays no sanctioning fees to defend or fight for the title at stake, contrary to practices of the sanctioning bodies.
However, many boxing journalists complained thatThe Ring ignored the world championship lineage when they started awarding titles again. A controversy described by Cliff Rold ofBoxingScene.com is for example, the "world" light-heavyweight title was considered vacant from the timeMichael Spinks went up to heavyweight in 1985 until 1996. While theCyber Boxing Zone and the International Boxing Research Organization considersVirgil Hill's defeat ofHenry Maske (who were the two highest rated light-heavyweights) as the beginning of the new lineage,[28]The Ring awarded their newly reintroduced title toRoy Jones.[29] In 2002,The Ring editor, Nigel Collins, acknowledged that if their championship policy was in place in 1997,Dariusz Michalczewski, who defeated Hill, "probably would have beenThe Ring Champion."[30]
Under the original version of the championship policy, there were only two ways that a boxer could winThe Ring's title: defeat the reigning champion; or win a box-off between the magazine's number-one and number-two rated contenders (or, sometimes, number-one and number-three rated). A vacantRing championship was filled when the number-one contender in a weight-division battles the number-two contender or the number-three contender (in cases whereThe Ring determined that the number-two and number-three contenders were close in abilities and records). The ratings are compiled by the magazine's editorial board, with the participation ofThe Ring Ratings Panel of boxing journalists from around the world. A fighter could not be stripped of the title unless he lost, decided to move to another weight division, or retired.
In May 2012, citing the number of vacancies in various weight classes as primary motivation,The Ring unveiled a new championship policy. Under the new policy,The Ring title can be awarded when the No. 1 and No. 2 fighters face one another or when the No. 1 and 2 contenders choose not to fight one another and either of them fights No. 3, No. 4 or No. 5, the winner may be awardedThe Ring belt. In addition, there are now seven ways for a fighter to lose his title:
Many media outlets and members are extremely critical of the new championship policy and state that if this new policy is followedThe Ring title will lose the credibility it once held.[32][33][34] They then later changed the policy so vacant belts can only be awarded to the winner of No. 1 vs No. 2 or if No. 3 is deemed worthy by The Ring's editorial board.[35]
The purchase ofThe Ring magazine by Golden Boy Promotions in 2007,[36] the dismissal of editor-in-chief Nigel Collins and several editorial staff in 2011 and a series of questionable ratings decisions by the new editors[37][38] prompted many members ofThe Ring Ratings Advisory Panel to resign. This led to the formation of theTransnational Boxing Rankings Board in 2012 headed by boxing historians Springs Toledo, Cliff Rold and Tim Starks.[39][40]
Golden Boy has publicizedThe Ring's World Championship when the title is at stake in fights it promotes (such asJoe Calzaghe vs. Roy Jones Jr. in 2008).[41]
As of September 24, 2025
| Weight class | Champion | Date won |
|---|---|---|
| Strawweight | Oscar Collazo | November 16, 2024 |
| Junior flyweight | Vacant | |
| Flyweight | Vacant | |
| Junior bantamweight | Jesse Rodriguez | June 29, 2024 |
| Bantamweight | Vacant | |
| Junior featherweight | Naoya Inoue | December 26, 2023 |
| Featherweight | Vacant | |
| Junior lightweight | Vacant | |
| Lightweight | Vacant | |
| Junior welterweight | Teofimo Lopez | June 10, 2023 |
| Welterweight | Vacant | |
| Junior middleweight | Vacant | |
| Middleweight | Vacant | |
| Super middleweight | Terence Crawford | September 13, 2025 |
| Light heavyweight | Dmitry Bivol | February 22, 2025 |
| Cruiserweight | Jai Opetaia | July 2, 2022 |
| Heavyweight | Oleksandr Usyk | August 20, 2022 |
As of 22 November 2025
| Weight class | Champion | Date won |
|---|---|---|
| Atomweight | Vacant | |
| Strawweight | Vacant | |
| Junior flyweight | Uninaugurated | |
| Flyweight | Gabriela Fundora | November 2, 2024 |
| Junior bantamweight | Uninaugurated | |
| Bantamweight | Vacant | |
| Junior featherweight | Ellie Scotney | April 13, 2024 |
| Featherweight | Amanda Serrano | September 24, 2022 |
| Junior lightweight | Alycia Baumgardner | October 15, 2022 |
| Lightweight | Vacant | |
| Junior welterweight | Katie Taylor | November 25, 2023 |
| Welterweight | Lauren Price | May 11, 2024 |
| Junior middleweight | Vacant | |
| Middleweight | Claressa Shields | April 13, 2019 |
| Super middleweight | Shadasia Green | July 11, 2025 |
Note:The Ring champions are also noted as No. 1 fighters
As of November 22, 2025.
Keys:
| No. | Name | Weight Division(s) as #1 | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Tyson | Heavyweight | 1989 – January 1990 |
| 2 | Julio César Chávez | Junior welterweight | January 1990 – September 1993 |
| 3 | Pernell Whitaker |
| September 1993 – April 1997 |
| 4 | Roy Jones Jr. | Light heavyweight | April – May 1997 |
| 5 | Oscar De La Hoya | Welterweight | May 1997 – June 1999 |
| 6 | Roy Jones Jr. (2) | Light heavyweight | June 1999 – June 2000 |
| 7 | Shane Mosley | Welterweight | June 2000 – July 2002 |
| 8 | Bernard Hopkins | Middleweight | July 2002 – November 2003 |
| 9 | Roy Jones Jr. (3) |
| November 2003 – June 8, 2004 |
| 10 | Bernard Hopkins (2) | Middleweight | June 8, 2004 – July 18, 2005 |
| 11 | Floyd Mayweather Jr. |
| July 18, 2005 – June 9, 2008 |
| 12 | Manny Pacquiao |
| June 9, 2008 – May 7, 2012 |
| The Ring decided to vacate the pound-for-pound #1 rank and demoted Pacquiao to #2 that resulted in a tie with Mayweather Jr. because the members of the editorial board were unimpressed by Pacquiao's performancein his third fight with Juan Manuel Márquez, while Mayweather Jr. was not promoted to #1 because the board determined that he struggledin his fight against Miguel Cotto.[42] | |||
| 13 | Floyd Mayweather Jr. (2) |
| December 11, 2012 – September 15, 2015 |
| 14 | Román González |
| September 15, 2015 – March 21, 2017 |
| 15 | Andre Ward | Light heavyweight | March 21 – September 26, 2017 |
| 16 | Gennady Golovkin | Middleweight | September 26, 2017 – September 18, 2018 |
| 17 | Vasiliy Lomachenko | Lightweight | September 18, 2018 – November 7, 2019 |
| 18 | Canelo Álvarez |
| November 7, 2019 – May 7, 2022 |
| 19 | Oleksandr Usyk | Heavyweight | May 7 – June 11, 2022 |
| 20 | Naoya Inoue | Bantamweight | June 11 – August 20, 2022 |
| 21 | Oleksandr Usyk (2) | Heavyweight | August 20, 2022 – July 29, 2023 |
| 22 | Terence Crawford | Welterweight | July 29, 2023 – May 6, 2024 |
| 23 | Naoya Inoue (2) | Junior featherweight | May 6 – May 18, 2024 |
| 24 | Oleksandr Usyk (3) | Heavyweight | May 18, 2024 – September 15, 2025 |
| 25 | Terence Crawford (2) | Super middleweight | September 15, 2025 – present |
In their bookIron Ambition: My Life WithCus D'Amato,Mike Tyson and Larry Sloman, while depicting the rise of theInternational Boxing Club of New York and D'Amato's battle with the organization, allege that the magazine and its then-owner and editor-in-chiefNat Fleischer were under control of the IBC and the rankings were heavily favorable towards the fighters it controlled.[43]
In the 1970s, managing editor ofThe Ring Johnny Ort fabricated records of selected boxers to elevate them, thereby securing them lucrative fights on the American ABC television network, as part of theUnited States Championship Tournament,[44] orchestrated by promoterDon King.[7] The scandal was uncovered by boxing writer Malcolm "Flash" Gordon and ABC stafferAlex Wallau. After Gordon and Wallau's evidence was presented to ABC executiveRoone Arledge, the United States Championship tournament was cancelled. The scandal would lead to the eventual resignation of New York State Boxing CommissionerJames A. Farley Jr., who had lent his name to the Championship fights.[44]
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