Nigel Collins, editor of The Ring magazine, recently wrote that my head is "firmly lodged where the sun don't (sic) shine."

While that's an opinion I'm sure is shared by many -- most notably my wife, a few readers of this column and a couple of my bosses -- I feel the need to plead innocence.

To be fair, Collins didn't identify me by name. He lumped me with other boxing writers who don't endorse The Ring's championship policy.

The Ring identifies a champion and ranks boxers in each of the 17 weight classes.

The folks at The Ring have begun something of a campaign to have their champions and ratings adopted as boxing's "official" rankings.

Collins is a swell fellow who knows his boxing. He's also exceptionally honest, which is far more than can be said for those at the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF. Those are the four, ahem, official world sanctioning bodies, and they are also the cause of so many of boxing's problems.

If you want to know what a mess they've made of the sport, try to answer this simple question: Who is the light heavyweight champion?

Is it: A) Tomasz Adamek; B) Fabrice Tiozzo; C) Clinton Woods; D) Zsolt Erdei; or E) Antonio Tarver?

I'll bet my next paycheck that Walt Rulffes would love to get the test score I'll get on this one.

I'm fairly certain the new superintendent of the Clark County School District will be happy with marginal test scores, if they're marginally higher than they were under predecessor Carlos Garcia.

But I promise I won't get a score I'd be embarrassed to hang on the refrigerator.

My testing procedure might be flawed, but my score will be 100 percent correct, because there is no incorrect answer.

Adamek is the WBC champion. Tiozzo has the WBA title. Woods is the IBF's top man. Erdei holds the WBO belt. And Tarver wears The Ring's crown.

That split -- as well as an attempt to boost sagging magazine sales -- is why The Ring is in the business of awarding belts.

The Ring champions can win their belts only by fighting another top contender. And they can't be stripped for any of the 1,001 ridiculous reasons that the sanctioning bodies give when stripping fighters' titles.

These are the guys who once ranked a dead man. Darrin Morris died on Oct. 1, 2000, but he moved up in the WBO's January 2001 rankings. And if that weren't bad enough, can anyone explain how Morris remained ranked, even though he had fought just once from Sept. 30, 1997, until the unfortunate end of his life?

The only way a fighter loses recognition as a Ring champion is if he loses a fight, if he permanently moves to a different division or if he retires.

It's hard to disagree with that. And what's even better, The Ring doesn't charge the fighters a fee to fight for its belt.

Boxers who compete for one of the four sanctioning body titles must pay 3 percent of their purse for the right. If you're talking about an Oscar De La Hoya, who makes $20 million a fight, that 3 percent fee is hardly insignificant for a belt with a value of less than a couple hundred bucks.

But I still have some queasiness about blindly adopting The Ring's rankings.

One of the first things you learn in journalism school is that journalists should report the news and can comment on the news but they shouldn't make the news.

But by ranking fighters and awarding belts, the writers and editors at The Ring are breaking that simple tenet.

And while Collins doesn't want to hear it, The Ring and then-editor John Ort were involved in a major scandal in 1977, when it was discovered that its rankings were for sale. Fighters had to be ranked by The Ring in order to be on the ABC heavyweight series promoted by Don King, but The Ring's rankings were less than honest.

I have no such suspicions of Collins and his assistants, Joe Santoloquito and Eric Raskin, who compile Ring's rankings.

But by what authority should The Ring's champions be recognized as "the real" ones?

Why not use the excellent rankings done by Dan Rafael at ESPN.com? Why choose The Ring over British Boxing Monthly or Boxing Digest?

The Ring's rankings are, by and large, terrific and are a good starting point. But Collins won't be Ring's editor forever, and there is no assurance his successor will be nearly as qualified.

If we're asked to recognize The Ring as the sole authority, why not name Collins the worldwide boxing czar and be done with it?

I'm sure that would pay better than being editor of The Ring.

Kevin Iole's boxing column is published Saturday. He can be reached at 396-4428 or at kiole@reviewjournal.com.