importance of the linel championship

The question is, can you say it's not true with a straight face?:smoke

 

Unifying two titles at 140 makes Bradley the man at 147? Mayweather just unified two titles at JMW and could do the same at WW in May.

 

You do know Money beat JMM.

 

It was a weird phase where The Ring Mag for some reason wasn't awarding their title to lineal champions.

So technically, Floyd never won The Ring Mag Lineal Title at 130, as they didn't reward him for the Corrales showdown between #1 and #2 either.

But I don't know, it's mildly inconsistent. Some say he won the lineal title at 130 from Genaro as Genaro had beaten Azumah. However Gatti was #2 (at least by The Ring's rankings) between #3 Genaro and #1 Azumah so that likely stood in the way of that qualifying for some.

Gatti lost to Manfredy in Jan. '98 at Lightweight never to return to Super Featherweight. Worth noting is that Manfredy was ranked #4 at Super Featherweight by The Ring even after his TKO2 defeat to Floyd. The only ones higher were Floyd, Hatakeyama, and Garcia. Worth noting is the wins by Hatakeyama and Garcia that catapulted them so high would have just been had in '98, and it is possible; I'd have to go look it up, that Manfredy entered that fight as the #2 SFW (as Gatti was before Manfredy beat him, although fought at LW, it may have affected people's SFW rankings... you know how that goes). So it is possible that Floyd won the lineal title from Genaro or Manfredy, but certainly no later than against Corrales, who had leapfrogged Floyd to #1 at SFW in most peoples' eyes.

 

RING Magazine rankings at the end of 2012:
1. Mayweather
2. Alvarez
3. Trout
4. Cotto
5. Lara

None of these fighters would have any fights between when these rankings came out in January and when Alvarez/Trout fought in April. It filled a vacancy, as Mayweather had announced his intentions to fight at WW (against Guerrero). Of those 5, the only ones debated over were if Floyd and Cotto deserved to be as high as they were (Floyd for his lone W over Cotto and Cotto for back to back losses to Floyd and Trout). While people debated the order of Alvarez and Trout, nobody debated that Lara was behind them both (not in skill, but in accomplishment, which is the whole point of rankings).

Alvarez and Trout were the consensus 1 and 2, in whichever order, at JMW entering their fight. Period.

While you can argue that all along Lara has been the H2H best JMW, I could argue that all along Moruti Mthalane H2H has been the best Flyweight and Gary Russell Jr H2H has been the best at Featherweight. What does it mean? Nothing. Rankings aren't based on opinion of skill but rather opinion of accomplishment.

Lara was just coming off his Draw to Vanes. People cited that along with the Molina draw and his lackluster UD over Freddy Hernandez as negatives. Almost everybody drew that rash conclusion. Hell, his fights between Paul Williams and Vanes M were both above the 154 limit and thus do not contribute to his JMW rankings.

Only after taming Angulo and Trout, both fights after Alvarez/Trout happened in April, did he regain footing to actually be rightfully ranked atop or one slot below in the JMW division.

Alvarez vs. Trout was the #2 and #1 fighter at JMW fighting. Of course it filled a lineal title vacancy. That is how lineal titles emerge. Lara had no say in the matter.

 

You think that when Bradley beat Pacquiao in June of 2012, that ended Pacquiao's stay as top WW and/or P4P King? Nice. I thought it ended with the performance turned in against JMM in their third fight in 2011...

Bradley holds the close win over Abregu at WW too, in addition to the razor close win over unranked Provodnikov at WW. Both are impressive but neither were dominant. Same with his victory over the faded Pacquiao.

Marquez is Bradley's best WW accomplishment, as he clearly defeated the 40 year old man who had just scored one of the greatest knockouts of the era himself in the fight beforehand.

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If we compared WW resumes, Floyd >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Bradley.

 

Yeah I was thinking "how stupid" when I read that.

Some people will say anything to try and desperately support their argument.

By the way people give cross division credit for a single fight, it's a shock that Rigondeaux isn't the worlds' #1 Cruiserweight yet.

 

Floyd has the shutout over Marquez and the near shut out over Mosley who was P4P #3 and #1 @ 147. Bringing up Provodnikov only demonstrates CLEARLY that YDKSAB. Provodnikov has done **** @ welter...