The legacy of Ring Magazine has taken a polarizing place in the current boxing landscape as the longtime media institution has come under the control of Zuffa Boxing promoter Turki Alalshikh. And boxing icon and former Ring Magazine owner Oscar De La Hoya has regrets over his sale of the magazine.<\/p>\n
The publishing of the periodical dates all the way back to 1922 and its boxing rankings date to 1924. With the massive splintering of rival organizations and sanctioning bodies throughout the sport, the Ring Magazine rankings became a reflection of who the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world truly were.<\/p>\n
Boxing icon Oscar De La Hoya had purchased Ring Magazine in 2007 through his Golden Boy Promotions. He then sold the mag to Turki Alalshikh in 2024<\/a>. Under Alalshikh\u2019s ownership, the publication has been the subject of intense scrutiny for favoring Zuffa and more or less being a propaganda tool for the wealthy Saudi owner<\/a>.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s a concern that De La Hoya also shares.<\/p>\n In an interview with Ariel Helwani, De La Hoya said selling Ring Magazine was one of his biggest regrets and that the century-long rankings have lost their integrity.<\/p>\n Oscar De La Hoya admits he regrets selling Ring Magazine:<\/p>\n \u201cI never regret anything, but I do [regret selling]. When I had the Ring Magazine I kept its integrity\u2026 Turki came along and, I thought I was selling it to a person who really cared for the sport and was going to uphold\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/vBc8slQ4iz<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) March 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWho\u2019s making up the rankings now,\u201d De La Hoya asked. \u201cI really do think that the Ring rankings are out the window. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any integrity there, whatsoever. The Ring belt, the Ring Magazine was everything for a 100 years, let\u2019s 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\u2019s just a name.\u201d<\/p>\n Helwani then asked De La Hoya if he regretted selling the magazine to Alalshikh and he replied in the affirmative.<\/p>\n \u201cDo I regret it? The way things are going, I actually do. And I never regret anything. 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\u2019s number one, who\u2019s number two, making sure its integrity is in place. And I could have sustained it forever if I wanted to. But Turki came along and 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Oscar De La Hoya also has some skin in the game here as a rival promoter. And to be clear, the same accusations and criticisms he is lobbing at Turki Alalshikh are ones that were fired in his direction while he owned the publication. A 2012 Columbia Journalism Review feature from former Ring writer Ivan G. Goldman documented concerns under the Golden Boy\u2019s leadership in a scathing piece entitled \u201cThe Ring is Counted Out<\/a>.\u201d Other boxing writers found ample examples of potential bias<\/a> with De La Hoya fighters and Ring Magazine. And like De La Hoya now, other promoters cried foul after his purchase<\/a>.<\/p>\n So while the substance of the argument may be correct, maybe it needs a different messenger to really break through. Everything old is new again, and that\u2019s especially the case when it comes to conflicts of interest that permeate the boxing world.<\/p>\n \t