Do you consider Garcia the lineal champ at 140?

I think he deserves to be regarded as the lineal champ right now (note that I'm not a fan of his either.)

He won a unification bout with Khan, who effectively became the man at 140 after Bradley ducked him. The Peterson fight was a robbery, 7-5 Khan with a knockdown (and one knockdown the ref didn't count.) 113-112 even with the point deductions. And Peterson was roided up to the eyeballs. That fight should honestly be a NC.

If he beat Lamont/Matthyse his claim would be even stronger, but even now, Garcia is still the man at 140 until he loses in my opinion.

 

He was offered a career high payday to fight Khan early in 2011, but declined because, in his own words, he didn't want to risk losing a shot at Floyd or Manny by losing to Khan. He didn't fight again until Casamayor at the end of the year. There's no way to argue he couldn't have fought Khan before leaving Shaw. He sat on the shelf for most of 2011 instead to protect his 0.

Khan was the unified champ and one if the two best guys at 140. People debated who was #1 between him and Bradley before Bradley ducked him. If you don't regard Khan as champ post Bradley, he was at the least the #1 contender, and Garcia was at least a top 5 LWW at the time and a belt holder, so his victory over Khan can be justifiably stated to have started a new lineage.

 

its him or Petersen

Bradley moved up

Khan and Petersen fought, Petersen won you can make a case that Petersen won lineage

 

The trouble with lineal titles is that there are no rules about how lineage is established, it all boils down to consensus opinion much of the time. The last guy to unify the titles at 140 was Tszyu, and his lineage was passed on to Hatton and then to Pacquiao, but there it kind of came to an end.
The guy who IMO came closest to establishing a new line was Bradley when he beat Alexander, but ofcourse he moved up.
So now we have Garcia. Is he the lineal champ? I don't think he's done quite enough to be considered beyond dispute the #1 guy at 140, which i think is needed to establish a new line.
Like Shane Mosley did when he beat DLH in 2000, Garcia needs that win that really puts him head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. I think if he beats Judah and then the Mathysse-Peterson winner, he's done what he needs to do. I know there's still Rios, but you don't need to clean out the whole division to be considered 'the man'.
Be that as it may, it's gonna be damn hard for Garcia to do these things.

 

On a side note, lineal titles are vastly overrated.

 

I don't think khan and Peterson were 1 and 2 ranked fighters at 140 lbs at the time, plus with Peterson taking PEDS for the first fight I don't think it would be fair to rate him lineal champ.

 

Khan was the man at 140 and Garcia beat him. I dont think there should be a lineal champ at the moment. Only a top dog.

 

I want to call him lineal champ, but it's hard for me to do it. Timothy Bradley was more of a lineal champ than Garcia

 

Of course he is. Does that make him the best guy in the division? No, not at all. Matthysse knocks him out, PEDerson would likely beat him and Khan would probably fight smarter and win a decision in a rematch.

 

Khan got his ass whipped by Peterson firsts. So Petersons the HNIC at 140

 

Timothy Bradley was the champ at 140, but once he left, it was up for grabs. Peterson beat Khan and Khan lost to Garcia.


It'd have to be Garcia/Peterson to determine who the champ is, IMO.

 

Pretty much.

I think once Tim left its still open, Garcia is close but just isnt dominating the division like Bradley did

 

yeah, I'm still disappointed the Ring never acknowledged Bradley as champ.

I agree with the idea that the winner of Garcia/Peterson or Garcia/Matthysse should be recognized as lineal champ