DUKING IT OUT

Can a millionaire boxer-turned-businessman restore the faded luster of his sport's pre-eminent magazine?

Or will Oscar De La Hoya's purchase of The Ring, announced Wednesday, damage the Blue Bell-based magazine's credibility, bringing suspicion every time it mentions De La Hoya or a boxer that his company, Golden Boy, promotes?

For his part, De La Hoya promises to keep his gloves off the editorial content and says that what he really wants is to make The Ring more like, well, Golf Digest.

"We want to make it a sexier magazine, a magazine you want to pick up," he said. "I read Golf Digest and look at that as the perfect blueprint. It gives you all the information on golf. They have golf superstars doing columns, offering tips. I think, why can't The Ring be like that?"

If he has any ulterior motive, De La Hoya says, it is to reach out to fans who have wandered away from boxing, giving them - through Ring's respected rankings of fighters and recognition of champions - a way to cut through the confusion of who the sport's reigning champs really are.

Neither De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions nor Blue Bell-based Kappa Publishing Group Inc., which had owned Ring since 1992, will talk about the financial terms of the deal. The sale to privately held Golden Boy's new Sports Entertainment Publications subsidiary also included three other Kappa titles: KO Boxing, World Boxing and Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Most boxing insiders do not care much about the financial terms of the deal. They care about Ring and what will happen next.

"There may be no publication that's been more influential in the sport it covers than Ring," said Philadelphia promoter J. Russell Peltz, whose memorabilia collection includes every issue of Ring since the magazine's debut in 1922. "From 1922 to the early 1970s, Ring was the unofficial commissioner of boxing."

The magazine's rankings of boxers are the most respected in the sport, and the one fighter in each weight division who can hold Ring's title belt is increasingly considered the sole, true world champ. De La Hoya wants to strengthen the influence of those rankings.

For writers, getting a byline in Ring is like a musician's playing Carnegie Hall. Top writers gladly accept as little as $200 for a feature story, less than one-tenth what a major sports magazine would pay.

But the magazine has needed help. Kappa, whose main business is word-search and crossword-puzzle magazines, bought Ring in 1992 as it was acquiring newsstand periodicals to keep its printing presses busy in Fort Washington. Despina McNulty, Kappa's president, said Ring had been profitable, but undernourished. In 15 years, Kappa did little to license or expand one of the most established brand names in sports. Ring was not regularly printed in color until the late 1990s, and the low-budget magazine is designed by artists who split time between Ring and Kappa's non-boxing titles. Ring did not launch a Web site until 2005, allowing start-ups to dominate online boxing news. And after the July issue this year, Ring lost its only major advertiser, sports-equipment-maker Everlast.

Philadelphia lawyer Arnold Joseph, brought in to work for the new company, said last week that the magazine's circulation had been 100,000. That number is not audited.

"That may be how much they print. How many they sell is another story," said Samir Husni, a magazine expert who is chairman of the journalism department at the University of Mississippi.

Enter De La Hoya, who has pumped his years of multimillion-dollar purses into real estate, apparel, and other businesses and charities. His Golden Boy Promotions, founded in 2002, stages boxing cards that showcase the growing stable of fighters he has under contract. He has made equity partners out of active fighters, including Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley. Riding De La Hoya's drawing power, Golden Boy has brought mainstream sponsors to the sport, including Southwest Airlines and Tecate Beer.

De La Hoya said he would expand Ring's staff and improve production quality. He will explore a Spanish-language version (he is a part owner of ImpreMedia L.L.C., the country's largest Spanish-newspaper publisher). Online, he says, "we want to be the leading Web site when people want to find out what's happening in boxing."

But Golden Boy is not the White Knight for The Ring that many boxing insiders hoped for.

"There's conflict of interest all over the place," said Lou DiBella, a rival promoter. "It takes what's been called 'The Bible of Boxing' and puts it under the ownership of a player who's trying to dominate the business. If you're a rival company to Golden Boy, would you want [Ring's] ratings being used by television networks to determine what they buy?

"There's too much inherent conflict. And if I owned Ring magazine, and I'm a promoter, I certainly would go to a fighter and say, 'Look, I own Ring magazine.' "

Counters De la Hoya: "Over time, people are going to realize we want to do the right thing for boxing."

No one doubts the integrity of editor in chief Nigel Collins or his staff. No one is saying either how long they will stay in Blue Bell.

Seven former Kappa staff employees are part of the new company. They include Collins, publisher Stu Saks, managing editor Joe Santoliquito, and two artists. The new company is leasing space at Kappa and for now will pay Kappa to keep printing the four acquired magazines.

What else happens remains to be seen.

"I think everybody's going to be watching now," Peltz said. "It all depends on what Oscar wants to do. If he keeps his hands off, it's good for boxing. If not, it's same old, same old."