Joe Calzaghe: The LHW and SMW Multi-division Champ...

His point is that the likes of Kotelnik, Alcine and Sturm are champions because they hold one of the big three ABC belts, but that Hopkins wasnt and Calzaghe isnt due to 'only' holding the Ring belt.

 

Umm, how am I contradicting myself by telling you what Mike464's argument is, having seen him make it before.

I think it's utter bollocks, hence my examples.

Understand post before replying?

 

Wasn't Jones the LHW champion when he won the WBA Heavyweight or did he give it up before fighting Ruiz?

 

GrandMaster_T is that Tracy Byrd in your avatar?

 

Roy Jones Jr. was Light Heavyweight Champ - and then won the Heavyweight Championship.

He was stripped of the Light Heayweight Belts of course - but he held both at one time - before being stripped.

 

Mayweather was the Welterweight and Jr. Middleweight Champ when he beat Oscar - but decided to only keep the Welterweight Belt.

Not many held on to both for very long - before being stripped or forced to give it up.

Mayweather
Jones
Calzaghe
Pac-Man - if he beats Diaz

 

Erdei is the linear champ, and I am pretty sure that his lineage traces back to Michalzewski?

I will probably kick myself, but who did Darius beat for the lineage?

BTW, I consider Calzaghe to be the man at LHW now. I considered BHop to be the man, Tarver to be the man, Johnson to be the man, and of course Jones. Far as I'm concerned, nobody has as good a claim as Calzaghe now. Goes without saying that if Tarver had bothered to fight a couple of mandatories, Calzaghe would now be holding two or three belts.

 

Erdei beat Gonzalez who beat Michalzewski who beat Virgil Hill.

The alternative argument is that the linear title was vacant and Hill was not linear, and lineage was then restored when RJJ unified the three main belts.

 

I think Sugar Ray Robinson, held the Welterweight and Middleweight championships at the same time.

 

There's about 5 pages of discussion on the point in this thread:

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61197

The gist of it is that the lineage starts when Virgil Hill and Henry Maske fought (who were #1 and #2 at the time). If that isn't good enough, then DM beat Hill (another #1 vs #2 matchup) to unify three belts. If that isn't good enough, after being stripped of two of the belts, he beat Rochigianni, who would have held the 4th belt had he not been stripped. DM got stripped of most of the belts, but he didn't lose the lineal championship until he lost to Gonzalez, who then lost to Erdei.

Since Jones never fought DM, he never could have become lineal champ. There are only two scenarios here. If DM was lineal, then Jones never had it because he never beat DM in the ring. If DM wasn't lineal, then Jones STILL couldn't have been lineal because he never fought the #2 guy in the weight class.