Only one linear HW champion was not knocked down in title fights.

It's just one of many examples to show there's no hard or fast rules any more.

It just depends on who has the best claim at the time.

Until Joshua lost to Ruiz people were clamoring to call him the one true HW champ and Wilder a paper champ.

 

Well, people on primarily UK boxing boards and Joshua's promoter were claiming he was the one true champ.

Didn't take decades or even years for that to look silly.

Like I said, people always want to know NOW because they have no patience. With hindsight, it's easy.

Joshua was never the Lineal champ. He could become one. But he hasn't been.

 

Lineage is definitely something for historians.

Fury is the first boxer I've ever heard use it in the current climate.

 

Lineage keeps fans sane.

Beat the champ, you become the champ.

No need to overcomplicate it.

 

The only one that comes to mind is max Baer. As for the lineal belt row. Far as I'm concerned it's
Ali
Spinks
Ali
Holmes
Spinks - Michael.
Tyson
Douglas
Holyfield
Bowe
Holyfield
Moorer
Foreman
Briggs
Lewis
Rahman
Lewis
Then it's a bit confusing.
I'll shoot for Wlad, but could be his Bro!
Anyway, then Fury, and has been since he whipped Wlad.
Sorry but AJ doesn't get a look in yet.

 

ok, I don't know all the linear stuff. I just know they were champions of one of the two world sanctioning bodies from through the 60s to mid 80s.

 

ok, I just don't know about these things

 

Wait! Was Foreman linear? he was never down

 

He was in his previous reign, Ali put him down. Second time around he took everything thrown at him!

 

Ali says otherwise.

 

I meant the second time around.

 

I'm pretty sure it still counts, since guys are including Spinks vs Holmes. After all, it was still George Foreman in there. Plus the ref shoulda give him a count vs Holyfield, he fell back after a 1-3-2 and was held up by the ropes.

Just MO though, could be wrong. I was with Dempsey.

As for the thread, I think the correct answers are Wlad, Bowe and Baer.

 

wait a minute, the two champions between '64 and '67 must be accounted for. Ali and Terrell. Who was linear? Cuz neither of them was down as champion.

 

Well other than those three knockdowns, he escaped that round unscathed!

 

Ali was linear because he was the man who beat the man who beat Floyd Patterson (who won a vacant title against a 73-year-old light-heavyweight!), whereas Terrell just picked up the WBA belt that had been stripped from Ali for rematching Liston.