Anybody think Wlad will try to get to 26 defenses?

I'm curious why you don't agree Wlad has 18 title defenses.

Who would you say is the HW champion from 2006-now? There has to be someone right? At all times? All of the other titlists have washed out.

He beat the #1 rated HW to become a titlist/champion from the beginning so he should be considered "The Champ".

 

IMO counting Wlad as lineal champ only from the Povetkin fight onwards is overly harsh. Lewis retired in 03 and Vitali had apparently retired with a serious knee injury 04. Now I do believe you have to earn/re-establish a authentic champion to have lineal authority. I think Wlad accomplished that between 04-08 when Vitali returns Wlad defeated among others, Peters, Byrd, Brock, Thompson, avenges Brewster, and Ibrigamov. That is an outstanding run and then after Vitali returns after a two month shy of 4 year absence Wlad defeats Chagaev. To me during this time Wlad has established himself as the man in the division. Just my opinion.

 

Lineal this, lineal that. It's ridiculous to speak of lineal titles these days. Absolutely ridiculous.

 

Agreed. Totally unfair to expect "lineal" these days. It's not the 50's, there are a ton of belts, and a ton of politics to navigate. People are nuts if they don't think Louis wouldn't have had to wait through many years before he became "lineal" champ if ever. If today's situation had existed back then, if there was a "lineal" champ for Louis to fight, he probably would have refused to fight Louis, let Louis collect the other belts, and then retired. Wlad started this current streak by beating the longest reigning, and probably the best of the HW titlists. He was a legit champ, and the best of that bunch. His brother complicated that for a long time, but you can't hold that against Wlad too much, and now his brother is gone. His streak is legitimate. For that matter, the WBO belt he had earlier, while not as significant today, was still a quality belt attracting quality contenders. Byrd and prime McCline are still among his best wins. So its very reasonable to say his overall successful defense record stands at 23, two shy of Louis's record. However, that's not consecutive and the WBO streak is still less significant, so it would be much more meaningful for Wlad to break the consecutive streak record at 26.

You're totally right though, some posters want to impose a black and white order on something that doesn't exist and is really unfair to try to impose.

 

Yes, because boxing politics was entirely different back then. I explained this in an earlier post.

 

Wlad might be tempted to do so, but I disagree that he has time to play around with worthless challengers. He will get through Fury, Glazkov and Wilder/Povetkin by the end of 2016 (maybe Chagaev too, he has to face him in a not too distant future), but by that time Joshua and/or Parker will likely be mandatories (Joshua is already almost no. 1 at the WBC and WBO). He is not going to fight 4 more fights throughout 2017 and 2018 without facing them. I think fighting Jousha let's say towards the end of 2017, at the age of 41,5, would be very risky for him.

 

Very risky, but the risk could be worth the reward. So far he's owned Joshua in sparring. Maybe that could change in 3 years, but if he beats Joshua, and Joshua goes on to be an ATG, Wlad could really drive home a good argument for GOAT. If I were Wlad, I'd try to unify first, then immediately try to get Joshua and Parker now, when Wlad's closer to prime and they are still green. The longer it takes to get them in the ring, the riskier it gets.

 

No, I'm not, I think you must be mixing up what it means. Webster's dictionary defines lineal as "descended in a direct line". Thus, "the guy who beat the guy". But with retirements and multiple belts, that becomes incomparably harder. Unification has everything to do with lineal, because it removes the "doubt" of who the legitimate" champ is. Don't forget, Tunney retired without a loss, so the "lineal" championship died then in some ways. Except, there was one largely recognized title back then, and Louis was eventually able to grab it. If there were 4 titles under the current boxing politics, it would have taken him many years to get them all.

I'm not disputing Louis's greatness, btw. I rate him as #1 or #2 among HW's. But I'm also not going to put unfair benchmarks on Wlad that would prevent him, or any other HW, from ever seeking to surpass Louis.