lets have a serious discussion about who is the middleweight champion

Did Lewis have to severely dehydrate himself when he fought Tyson ?

 

NO.

MW is anything below the 160 lb limit.

 

There is one thing I'm still not clear on regarding the lineal champ...now that Canelo is the lineal champ at middleweight, what if he went down to 154 and lost. Would the person who beat him be the new lineal MW champ, or would it still be Canelo since he only lost at Jr Middleweight?

 

So if someone at 125 wanted to fight at MW, they could do that? They don't have to be heavier than 154? Serious question...I've always wondered about this.

 

That's my take.

And it's how things were in boxing, unless there have been recent changes.

SRL fought for the LHW title weighing in at 165.

Bob Fitzsimmons fought Corbett weighing in at 167, for the heavyweight title.

The weight limit is a maximum.

 

Let everything play itself out first.

 

The lineal championship is a very nebulous thing, as is evidenced by the discussion in this and other threads.

Essentially, there ARE no rules as there is no organization that determines its authenticity or legitimacy in the way the alphabet organizations do for their titles.

The RING and TNBR both have 'champions' independent of what the alphabet orgs sanction.

They don't, as far as i know, refer to these champions as lineal, but lineality (or linearity ) features largely in their determination of who is champion. Lineal means using the-man-who-beat-the-man rule.

This is probably what Mcgrain means when he says "Public opinion doesn't crown the champion. BOXING does."

In other words, the (lineal) championship is determined in the ring.

However, there is still an element of opinion in the matter.

Just as a royal line is straightforward when there are direct descendants , but can get tricky when a monarch dies without an heir,
the lineal title is straightforward when a fighter holds the title by virtue of having beaten the previous title-holder.

When a lineal title holder retires with the title, a new lineage needs to be established, and at this point, it is established by opinion rather than solely by 'boxing.'

The most stringent rule would be to have the #1 fight the #2 with the winner establishing a new lineage. But opinion plays a role in determining who is #1 and #2.

And some, under some circumstances, will allow #1 to face #3 for the new lineage, if they feel there are sufficient grounds to allow this exception. So again, there is some element of opinion involved.

Once the lineage is established, it's comparatively easy to keep track of things, but not always.

Does the champion have to defend to keep the championship ?

Some would remove the distinction after a year without a defence. Others would let it ride for two years. Opinion.

Strictly speaking, while RING or TNBR or WHOEVER might strip their term "champion" from a fighter for inactivity, no one can take away the linearity bit, unless they lose it in the ring or retire.

It then becomes a matter of how meaningful the distinction remains in the face of such failure to defend against the best.

RING (but not TNBR) has removed the designation CHAMPION from Andre Ward for failure to defend the title.

He is still, however, the linear champion, for whatever that counts, given his long spell of inactivity.

So to summarize, Champion status can be conferred and/or stripped by the various organizations, but linearity is determined in the ring.

It's up to the fans, individually or collectively to decide how much stock to put in a given organization's CHAMPION designation, and how much stock to put in the concept of linearity.

 

To answer your question, IMO, it would be up to Canelo as to whether or not it would be a title fight.

 

So everyone saying that Canelo is the champ because the middleweight limit is 160 is fine. The issue is that THE MIDDLEWEIGHT LIMIT IS 160!!

If the fight was made and Canelo would like to weigh in at 155 and GGG at 160 then that is also fine.

The issue here is Canelo only wants the catch-weight at 155 because he knows it will weaken GGG enough so that the fight would be at least competitive.

GGG is the middleweight champion until someone beats him when he is allowed to weight in AT THE MIDDLEWEIGHT LIMIT of 160

 

You can't have someone deciding what weight the fight is at and then call it a title fight or a lineal fight. A middleweight fight is one where both boxers may weigh up to 160 pounds. The lineal title at Middleweight is vacant. Cotto vacated it when he fought at 153.5 and won.

What will probably happen is Canelo will not fight GGG at 160 and in not reaching an agreement the WBC will strip him. Canelo will continue to fight at 154. Wait and see I guess.
www.premierboxingorganisation.com

 

this is what i tried to say, but lacked the clarity in my posts. the lineal concept, in theory, determines the most deserving fighter to be called champion. but, in practice, because of the politics and uneven enforcement of the rules that lend credence to that concept, becomes a meaningless title outside of fanboy debates.

 

Nevada State Athletic commission?

 

ROFLMAO Theyre the same State Commission that stated Floyd Mayweather jr did " NOTHING WRONG" after he was caught red handed receiving an ILLEGAL saline drip in his own home .The amount of saline he received was 750 ml many times the amount a hospital would give for an emergeancy for severe dehydration. Then the NSAC allowed Mayweather to submit an application for a TUE for the saline NINETEEN DAYS after the Illegal drip & then GRANTED the TUE !!!!!!!!

Do you give this commission an ounce of credibility after this ??/
Would you believe a word they say? I sure as heck dont