>>> Get your facts straight, Wlad only has *3* title defenses...

:rofl:good:deal

 

The burden of proof is on you.

The defense can rest without saying a word and win because you didn't prove your case that all of boxing but you and 4 other people is wrong.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/dan-rafael/post/_/id/2308/why-heavyweight-title-lineage-matters

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/boxing/2009-06-20-klitschko-chagaev_N.htm

 

You missed the rest of the statement.

But if Wlad wasn't the lineal champion after he beat Chagaev, then who was? Please, enlighten us with your vast knowledge of boxing.

 

23 world title defenses.

Second longest reigning world champion of all time.

 

The WBC title isn't the lineal title. By that logic, Wilder is the lineal champion.

Wlad beat every top contender in the division, so he was the lineal champion.

 

The World Heavyweight title that Louis fought for was as much all encompasing as the World Series of baseball, the whole world represented by the USA alone.

 

The Klitschkos and RING Magazine screwed up the heavyweight division for the better part of a decade.

After Lennox Lewis retired, the RING ratings had Vitali at #1, Chris Byrd at #2 and Corrie Sanders at #3. Considering that Byrd had a win over Vitali, and a rematch could've easily have taken place at some point, the decision by the RING to recognize the winner of Vitali-Sanders as the new LINEAL champ was not only dumb, but was widely ridiculed at the time.

In the past, the RING had always recognized the winner of a fight between their #1 and #2 contenders as a LINEAL fight (when a Lineal heavyweight champion retired or died).

It was a pretty easy way to keep track of things. If the champ is gone, let the two best remaining decide who is the new CHAMP.

But the RING screwed that all up by changing their rules to allow a #1 vs a #3 to become the champ in the case of Vitali, Byrd and Sanders. It made no sense. If they didn't think Byrd was the second-best heavyweight after his controversial decision over Fres Oquendo in 2003 and after Sanders blew out Wlad, why not just rate Sanders #2 and drop Byrd down to #3? It certainly would've been understandable.

Anyway, Vitali beat Sanders, became the LINEAL champ (according to RING) as well as the WBC champ and then Vitali proceeded to fight once (against Danny Williams) and retire due to nagging injuries. Hasim Rahman then beat Monte Barrett to become the WBC champ.

When Vitali retired in 2005, the RING declared their title vacant and listed Chris Byrd as the #1 contender and Hasim Rahman as the #2 contender.

Then, in 2006, Wlad beat Chris Byrd for Byrd's IBF belt. And, in 2008, Wlad added Sultan Ibragimov's WBO belt to his collection. Around the time Wlad was starting to clean things up, Vitali screws everyone over by announcing he's returning and he's going to fight Sam Peter for the WBC belt Vitali vacated. (Peter had beaten Maskaev, who had knocked off Rahman for the WBC belt.)

At the time Vitali returned, RING listed their title vacant and had Wlad rated #1 and Peter rated #2.

It would've made sense for the RING to announce that since Vitali was the last RING champ and he'd retired without losing that claim, and he was fighting Peter (who they had #2), that Vitali-Peter would restart the LINEAL title. (Since Vitali was their last Lineal champ and all.)

However, RING didn't do that either. Instead, Vitali spanked Sam Peter, and the RING decided to keep their title vacant and list Wlad #1, Vitali #2 and Ruslan Chagaev (the WBA champ) #3.

And, to top it off, in the summer of 2009, Chagaev tests positive for Hepatitis and gets stripped by the WBA before a defense against Valuev. And David Haye pulls out of his fight with Wlad on two weeks notice claiming an injury ... so Wlad and Chagaev decide to fight on two weeks notice.

And the RING announces that since Wlad (their #1) and Vitali (their #2) will probably never fight, that the winner of Wlad-Chagaev will be the new LINEAL RING champ.

Even though their last LINEAL champ Vitali has a belt and is fighting just as often as everyone else is.

So Wlad beats Chagaev, and later Haye for the WBA belt, and now the last two LINEAL RING champs are holding all the alphabelt titles, too, and they won't fight each other.

Then Vitali retired again ... without ever losing the RING lineal belt in the ring itself, and Wlad is left.

Clearly, Wlad was the WORLD champion when he lost to Fury. Wlad was the best for quite some time.

But thanks to the Klitschkos (the two best for a decade) refusing to fight, and thanks to the RING muddying things up by naming BOTH LINEAL champ at different times, it was a total train wreck.

How many LINEAL defenses Wlad has is debatable. He had a ton of defenses of all his belts regardless. If you add his WBO defenses from his first reign to the defenses in his second, it's insane.

Wlads record is far better than his brother's. However, if they weren't related and had faced each other, I don't know if Wlad would've beaten Vitali.

Thankfully, Tyson Fury is the champion now. And he doesn't have a brother. And Hughie doesn't look likely to rule the world alongside of him.

So, now we can get back to the heavyweights being THE GLAMOUR division before the Klitschkos and RING magazine screwed everything up.

But the Klitschkos and RING definitely created a huge mess that will probably be argued about forever.

 

They didn't fight because they're brothers. Nobody ducked anybody.

 

Regardless, it shows how screwed up a division can get when the two best fighters in that division don't meet for a decade.

Boxing needs the best to fight the best regularly.

That's why I'm happy Tyson Fury ended the Klitschko era.