Joshua picked up 3 of the 4 titles in Fury's absence and surely you don't think a division should be held up if sonsome doesn't fight for 5 years do you?
I'm sure wilder wouldn't dispute it as if people agreed with Fury and Wilder were to win, he could then make that claim. So do you feel that if a lineal champ takes a break, that a new lineage cannot start? How long can the break be?
As I mentioned in my first post, because Fury can potentially be as good as he was, I think it's fair he is still lineal champion. He's only 30, which in heavyweight terms may not even be peak age. If he beat Wlad at 37 and came back at 40, you could argue he's probably never going to be as he was. Ali took a longer break and was still considered the best man in the division when he came back. Why can't Fury make that same claim?
Fury got stripped by almost everyone's "rules" for lineal. Certainly mine. Everyone prior to Fury's case would have and did do the same to others. I actually think the opinion that Joshua/Povetkin was 1 vs. 2 should be much greater, too.
Everyones rules huh? You realise this lineal tradition goes back over a hundred years. Your rules have nothing to do with it. The precedents have already been set in the past. To be the man you must beat the man... Quite simple.
No, it doesn't. There's several examples where fighters came back and were considered the consensus 'lineal champion' by the boxing community.
Lol what are you talking about? You can "don't think so" all you want. I'm talking facts. Go and do some research on the lineal heavyweight champion, there's a ton of speculation and opinion over decades.
Then who was "the man" that Wlad beat to become "the man"? Some say he became "the man" when he beat Chagaev, but Chagaev wasn't "the man". Others say it was when he beat Povetkin, but he wasn't "the man" either. So who was "the man" that Wlad beat, if that's the only route to the lineal.
If Vitali can comeback from a four year retirement and still be considered lineal, why can't Fury who was only 2 years removed and never really retired? I don't have an issue considering Fury the lineal guy because, quite frankly he "is" the lineal guy.