 "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 given weight class".However, many boxing journalists complained that "The Ring" ignored the current world championship lineage when they started awarding titles again.A controversy described by Cliff Rold of "BoxingScene.com" is for example, the "world" light-heavyweight title was considered vacant from the time Michael Spinks went up to heavyweight in 1985 until 1996.