It is not a literal title, so no organization has the power to strip someone of it. It’s a matter of opinion really. ESPN kept referring to Fury as the lineal champion when he returned, as they obviously had a financial incentive to promote him as the reigning champion, but other people considered it vacant at that point.
If Wilder and Joshua had fought each other during Fury's coke and pie binge, you MIGHT argue that they had fought for the "vacant" lineal title. Alas, they were never going to fight one another. The Andy Ruiz' and the Eric Molina's of the world got the call. It's Fury.
What he's saying is you have to beat the champ if you want to become the champ. Jack Dempsey didn't fight for three years between Firpo and Tunney. It happens. You guys have gotten so used to a bunch of doughy guys who work for sanctioning bodies ... who make up divisions and rules that they sometimes choose to enforce and sometimes choose to ignore ... taking titles off champions during conference calls in an attempt to make themselves feel powerful ... that you have lost sight of the very basic principle that in order to become the World champion you must beat the World Champion. If you don't want a guy to be the World Champion anymore, knock him out. There's no stripping of anything. You want the title. Beat him. As soon as someone becomes World Champion, it seems there's always some group of guys on the sidelines going "How can we strip him and name someone else champ to show we have some power?" I think the IBF stripped Fury 10 days after beating Wlad. 10 days! Because they wanted Czar Glazkov to be the champ. The "great' Czar Glazkov!
You stop being linear when you retire. Fury never announced an official retirement thus he was never stripped of the title.
Right. In theory, boxing should be one of the easiest sports to follow. * Two fighters get in the ring, slug away, the guy who beats the other wins. * If you fight the champion, beat the champion, you become the champion and you remain the champion until someone beats you. Fairly simple concepts to grasp. Which is why it sucks that the fighters aren't the ones who tend to screw things up. About 99.99% of the time the people who aren't fighting are the ones who muck everything up ... By starting new orgs, starting new divisions, stripping champions because they want him to fight this person not that person, or he doesn't fought as often as they like, or the judges get it wrong, or the referee gets it wrong. Fans shouldn't be asking why world champions WEREN'T stripped ... they should be shocked when one is.
As I understand, and @McGrain can clarify, the TBRB view is that Fury did announce his retirement via Twitter after he defeated Klitschko. Even if no one believed it was going to stick, it did mean that the lineal title became vacant at that point. Lineage was re-established when Fury defeated Wilder in the rematch. Moral of the story: Don't be a Dork on Twitter. That said, had this not occurred, I suspect that lineage would have remained with Fury until such time as he did announce his retirement. Though there have been instances where lineal champions were stripped by all sanctioning bodies for inactivity/refusal to face top contenders (Archie Moore being the notable example), usually lineal champions remain so until defeated.
Yeah, I agree that you can't really strip lineal titles. It's hellish though when a guy sits on a title.
There was a new lineage created after his ban, and he was the one fighting for it against the Alabama Windmill. It was possible because of Joshua's unexpected loss to Ruiz and the revenge landing Joshua on 3, with Wilder and Fury #1 and #2 for their rematch. Lineage stopped when banned early 2016, and regained about 4 years later.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jul/26/tyson-fury-retires-boxing-again Whether he was joking or not, the idea a fighter can be a champion in 2015 and two years later still hold that title without defending it is ridiculous.
You can think they shouldn't be, but the generally accepted lineage has tons of championships with multiple year gaps. Should Dempsey have been stripped before the Tunney fight? Maybe, but it's not how the lineage is generally recognised.
As others have said, lineal isn't something to be stripped. But this is the first I've heard of Wilder v Fury establishing a new lineage. It seems a bit crazy when there was still a guy out there holding 3 of the 4 titles. For me I recognize the Klitschko win as his claim, if not, I can wait for undisputed.