Since Leon Spinks, the worst lineal champion is either Old Foreman or Shannon Briggs, and we know who Shannon beat to become lineal (close fight, no robbery). Schultz should have become lineal if you want to split hairs.
If i had won the Heavyweight title, i personally would not give a dam whether folks thought me the worst ever or not, my name would be on that list of winners, no one could take that away from me. To the winners of the Heavyweight title i salute you, wished i had ability or luck to have been able to even try, let alone win the belt.
Rocky Marciano, Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, Jess Willard. If you are talking about modern heavyweights then John Ruiz.
Sorry but Ruiz just doesn't fit into that category as much as you might want us to believe that he does or wish that he had. He beat Holyfield twice. The first he clearly outpointed despite Holy's dirty tactics of elbowing and head-butting with ref Richard Steele's full AA approval and was shamelessly robbed by biased judges. The second he battered Holy all over the ring and left no room for robbery. Holy was just four years away from having KOD Tyson, so he was NOT an old man. In fact, after Ruiz Holyfield went on to seven more victories in which he beat Botha, Fres Oquendo, and scored knockouts. He also won two world titles and the giant Russian champ the run for his money after fighting Ruiz. Furthermore Ruiz beat a prime Johnson whom he floored TWICE and who had sent a top-ranked Maskaev through the ropes and not the tub of lard that Vitali fought later. He also easily beat Rahman who had recently knocked out Lewis almost putting Rahman away in the later rounds. He outpointed Gallota who had easily outpointed HWC Riddick Bowe. James Toney felt he needed drugs to beat Ruiz and was diverted of his title because of it. Had Ruiz been a pushover, then why use drugs hmmmm? So obviously Toney didn't share your biased assessment. Style? Ruiz used a hit and moving in with his shoulder and the opponent would cooperate by falling into a clinch in order to have time to recover. So it was a mutual thing and not one where Ruiz was desperately clinching to survive. Furthermore Jack Jonson did far more clinching, his fights were extremely boring to watch and it is perfectly OK by you. So you obviously have an agenda and it sure as hell doesn't seem to be related to boxing. Furthermore, as Holy found out-Ruiz could punch. This content is protected BTW Ruiz also did something Tyson was not able to do-he floored Holy. Holy wasn't knocked out because he cheated by wrestling and was not disqualified. Maybe because Cortez feared a riot if he did disqualify him? It is what it is Bro! Learn to live with it.
Ruiz. His entire career is based on cheating. He never "won" a fight against decent opposition without violating the rules against excessive holding, faking "low blows,"(Thunder, Holyfield, Johnson) or gift decisions (Golota).
So does anyone think that Bruno creeps into this list? Total of 5 World title fights, 4 inside the distance defeats and then only holds title for a few months after beating a journeyman in McCall
The thread starter specified them as legitimate world champions. To me, that means the lineal crown. Ingemar is toward the bottom of that list. Bottom 5. No disrespect to him. But all he really did was beat Floyd Patterson and Eddie Machen once. Olympic silver is amateur, different ballgame, irrelevant...