RINGSIDE By Doug Fischer FIGHTER OF THE YEAR FRUSTRATION
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August 2026 Volume 103, No. 8
Founder Nathaniel Fleischer (1888-1972) Owner His Excellency Turki Alalshikh
Editor-in-Chief Douglass Fischer Managing Editor Tom Gray Senior Editor Brian Harty Creative Director Lamar Clark Controller Deborah L. Harrison
THE RING (ISSN: 0035-5410) August 2026, is published 12 times per year by The Ring Magazine FZ, LLC P.O. Box 90254 Brooklyn, NY 11209. Postmasters: Send change of address Notices to: The Ring Magazine Subscriber Service Dept., PO Box 103 Camby West Congers NY 10920-0103 Phone: 845- 719-3120 subscriptions@ringmagazine.com Single copy price $9.99 in U.S.A. ,10.99 Canada (£10.99 in the U.K.). Global Subscription price $60.00 for 12 issues plus S&H. Not responsible for the loss or non-return of unsolicited articles or photographs, which will not be returned unless accompanied by a selfaddressed envelope bearing the proper amount of postage. The entire contents of this magazine are copyright ©2026 The Ring Magazine FZ-LLC. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. All rights reserved. Publisher is not responsible for the accuracy of the content of advertisements appearing in this magazine, nor the delivery or quality of merchandise or services offered. No endorsement of any such advertisement is intended or implied. Advertisers and agencies assume liability for claims arising from the content of their advertisements. FOR ADVERTISING INQUIRIES AND RATES: advertising@ ringmagazine.com. U.S. / Canadian and International distribution by Comag Marketing Group LLC, 155 Village Blvd #200, Princeton, NJ 08540. UK distribution by Seymour Distribution Ltd., 2 East Poultry Avenue, London, England, EC1A 9PT. Printed In USA Subscription Inquiries Back Issues Inquiries Digital Orders Inquiries The Ring Magazine Subscriber Service Dept. PO Box 103 Camby West Congers NY 10920-0103 Phone: 845-719-3120 subscriptions@ringmagazine.com Send Editorial Comments To: comeoutwriting@gmail.com or P.O. Box 90254 Brooklyn, NY 11209
W elcome to our August issue and the halfway point of 2026. I penned this column in June – six months into a year of boxing that has been both compelling and frustrating. Over the first half of the year, we were treated to a couple virtuoso performances (most notably Shakur Stevenson’s master class against Teofimo Lopez and David Benavidez’s brutal beatdown of Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez), some chilling knockouts (Frank Sanchez’s one-hitter- quitter of Richard Torrez is still fresh on my mind), a few slugfests (heavyweights on British soil in particular) and one monster event in Japan (Naoya Inoue vs. Junto Nakatani, excuse the pun). But sadly, there’s more news about big fights not happening than of significant matchups scheduled for the second half of the year. The sport’s brightest talents (primarily American standouts) are not fighting often enough. And their inactivity makes it difficult to separate the best from the
Since beating Teofimo Lopez, Shakur Stevenson only fights on X.
rest, which is what The Ring’s Editorial Board and Ratings Panel must do over the next five months. By November, we’ll need to determine who the leaders are for our 2026 awards in order to select the winners by the end of December. It wasn’t difficult to identify my early favorites to win Fight, Round, Knockout, Upset, Prospect and Trainer of the Year, but I couldn’t select a clear frontrunner for Fighter of the Year. Part of the reason is the smaller pool of candidates to pull from for the oldest and most coveted of The Ring’s annual awards, which generally goes to pound-for-pound-level boxers. Unless they achieve something monumental, like Terence Crawford’s victory over Canelo Alvarez, it’s tough rating one above the other. Compiling candidates for the other
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