Question to the lineal crowd, as I love these hypotheticals: Tyson Fury, being the lineal champion off of beating Wladimir Klitschko, wasn't recognized in the early 2018 as the champion by any major outlet. He vacated his remaining belts in October 2016, TBRB started to consider the throne as abandoned a few days later, and The Ring Magazine withdrew their recognition of him in February 2018. He came back in June 2018 calling himself the lineal champion straight off the rip. Imagine this scenario: Anthony Joshua beats number 3 rated Joseph Parker and Deontay Wilder beats number 5 rated Luis Ortiz in March 2018, like they really did. This time around however, they agree to fight in September on Wembley. Fury in the meanwhile makes two defences of his lineal claim. The winner of Joshua vs Wilder (clear number 1 and number 2 at this point) becomes the undisputed heavyweight champion holding WBA, WBC, IBF & WBO belts. They are also recognized as the champion by The Ring Magazine & TBRB. How does Fury's lineal claim fair in this situation? It would be an aberration to call him the rightful champion while there's an undisputed king recognized by every major outlet in the world. Would it be Joe Frazier/Muhammad Ali type of situation, where Joe Frazier was the universally recognized champion, but Ali held the lineal claim? Does the winner have to face Fury to solidify his status? What's Fury's championship claim worth at that point when in the last 2.5 years he only defeated Sefer Seferi and Francesco Pianeta? Would history see Fury's layoff as a break in the lineage and the winner of Joshua/Wilder as the creator of the new branch?
He would still be the linear champ. The situation would be similar to Micheal Spinks when Tyson unified the championship. Most people with common sense could see Tyson was universally #1 but Spinks beat Holmes, gave up the title (IBF) to fight Cooney (for the money) but was still the man who beat the man. Ultimately he fought Tyson and we all know the result. Not sure the how the winner of Wilder - Joshua would have feared against Fury. Guess we won’t know because the two could never agree terms.
Michael Spinks was at least recognized as the champion by The Ring Magazine. Fury after February 2018 held no recognition as the champion from any major outlet, except for the lineal claim, which not every one accepts.
