Wrong atschstop nuthugging so hard its making me :barf Let me explain linear and lineage to you :think To be Linear champ you need to beat the man who was the man. of course this is impossible as Lennox Lewis retired as lineal champion and so ended the lineage. So for a new Lineage to be started Some one has to unify the division and be recognised as undisputed champion of the world. Wlad is the wbo, ibf, ibo and ring champion But he is not undisputed as vitali is wbc champ and who cares about wba but still wlad is clearly not the undisputed champion as vitali has a claim to heavyweight championship. So no unidisputed champion= no linear champion :deal Do you wlad nut swingers understand now, to start a lineage you have to be undisputed champion. We are a ways off getting a linear champ, if Haye were to beat vitali then lose to wlad we would have a universaly recognised champ. As valuev dosen't really count, still can't see it happening to vitali retires or is beaten. :good
So you make the rules, then immediately change them. Throw out "unifying" - the belts end up in wrong hands all the time and basing lineage on them is giving them more credence than they deserve. You and I are in basic agreement - if the top 2 never fight, you don't re-establish lineage. But it's based on consensus rankings (admitedly debatable, but not in this case), not on belts.
Yes he is. For those saying Chagaev had no belt did you not remember him beating Valuev & Ruiz? Chag was the WBA champion in 99.9 % of the boxing world. Technically speaking Wlad has the IBF, WBO, IBO, WBA & Ring belts with the only missing belt being the WBC which his brother has. He won't fight his bro and I don't blame him. The Ring said under certain circumstances it is acceptable for the #1 guy to fight the #3 guy to determine the true champ. Wlad did that by fighting the #3 guy Chagaev to a TKO win.
Needless to say if Valuev suddenly grew a set of ballz & signed to fight Wladimir we'd have even more clarity......................
No he is not. #1 vs. #2 determines the true champion and Wlad and big sister Vitali are the top two heavyweights in a atrociously crappy division.
he is as close as we are going to get. He is the IBF/WBO/IBO/Ring Magazine Champion and he also beat the real WBA champion.
The trouble is you can't change the rules just because wlad and vitali are brothers, vitali is the wbc champ and until he beats him there is no linear or undisputed champion atsch Until vitali is beat or retires we have know true champion of the division :-( A lot of people think vitali would beat wlad in a match therefore wlad cannot be the linear champ and certinaly not the undisputed champ :deal
I am not changing the rules I did NOT say he is THE linear champion all I said is he is as close as we are going to get. Learn to read.
Wlad is the universally recognized heavyweight champion...that should be enough for most to accept...Haye was considered the universally recognized cruiserweight champ and most don't have a problem with his status even though he never fought Cunningham...pretty much everyone considered him the champ after beating Macarinelli and Mormeck. I think most intelligent boxing scribes recognize that this version of Wladmir Klitschko is going to be very tough to defeat and deserves to be considered the Champ at this time...anyone who hangs onto the idea of Wlad fighting his brother is simply an a**hole.
I'd say no; but he's on his way to starting a new lineage. First, we need to get rid of his brother either by defeat or retirement. Then Wlad has to face the consensus No 2 man and win. Beating Valuev would help too, as the WBA picture is muddy as heck, might as well just beat them all to sort that pile of garbage out. The other option is for Wlad to defeat Lennox Lewis.
Haye was linear because he beat Mormeck who was existing linear champion (lineage established when Bell and Mormeck met unifying the WBA, WBC and IBF belts). In the same way, Pavlik is linear at MW despite never holding the WBA or IBF belt and Pacquiao is linear at LWW despite not holding any major ABC belt. They beat existing linear champions. There is no existing linear champion at heavyweight, so the situation is different.