Lineal Champions - Division by Division

Interesting facts. In these days of multiple belts and cherry picking champions the lineal is the clearest way of deciding the division's best. The man who beat the man...

 

The lineal doesn't determine who the best is, but they are the true champ of that division, clearly.

Isn't JMM linear at LW?

 

If Erdei is considered lineal at 175 then there is at least a case for JMM at 135.

If the criteria of having to unify the three main belts to create a lineage is applied then Calzaghe is linear at 175, and 135 is vacant.

 

Last lineal champ at SMW was probably Jones jnr after beating Toney, or Benn after beating Mclellan . It's a good question .
I'd say Margarito became the lineal champ after beating Cotto , and Wlad is the lineal at HW, a fact that has become less clear with his bro coming back

 

the century where there's far too many champions, far too many weight classes and it's very rare that the best two fighters meet. Lineage has to be considered carefully these days. Otherwise how do you separate a champion from some fringe contender with a wbo bauble?

 

At lightweight - would it be JMM now?

Floyd moved up, Corrales beat Castillo. Casa beat Corrales and then JMM?

Or you going back even further and pretty much killing linear when Sweet Pea went up?

 

Super bantam - Izzy
Bantam - vacant after RM went up
Superfly - vacant (suppose there could be an arguement for Vic if you consider him and Mijares to be #2 and #1 at the time of their fight)
Flyweight - no idea
Light flyweight - vacant after Arce went up
Straweight - no idea!!

Same as the poster feel free to fill in the blanks or correct my mistakes.

 

SFW was vacant until pac beat jmm (#1 vs. #2) in the rematch. as a result, pac became lineal @130 but relinquished it when he won the WBC 135-lb title. now, it is again currently vacant.

 

the three main belts re creating lineage only happens when the linear title is vacant. when the lineal champion retires or moves up. which is not the case at 175.
erdei may not be the best fighter at 175, but he is the lineal champ

politics caused the problem at 135, and i agree that jmm should be considered lineal at the weight, as casa never lost the title in the ring

 

In my opinion there hasnt been a lineal champ at 168 before Calzaghe. He's the first guy to be the unquestioned champ by winning all 4 belts. Naming anyone else before him as lineal involves guess work.

 

good list i would add Pac as the last at 130 and Vasquez as current at 122.

 

Err, yes, it was the case at 175.

Michael Spinks vacated the linear chmapionship when moving up to heavyweight.

The current lineage that people consider to go through Erdei was vacant before Dariuz Michalczwewski fought Virgil Hill, then passed through Michalczewski to Julio Cesar Gonzalez and then to Erdei.

If you consider unifying the three main belts to be the necessary condition of creating a new lineage then DM did not do that - he only had the WBA and IBF belts. If he was not considered linear, then obviously that cannot then pass on to Gonzalez and Erdei.

If the lineage is still considered vacant at that point, then Roy Jones did unify the three belts when beating Reggie Johnson, and a new lineage would be created then which would then pass through Tarver and Hopkins to Calzaghe.

There are merits to both arguments imo. I instinctively prefer the 'unification of the titles' approach as that lends an objective standard to the whole thing rather than a subjective view of who are the two best fighters in the division. However, the fact that Jones could gain a lineage without having to face DM, who was still in the division and had had those titles stripped from him for bs reasons clearly highlights a weakness.

The problem at 135 is exactly the same as the problem at 175. The question is not whether Casa ever lost the title, the question is whether he ever gained it. For exactly the same reason as above, the title was vacant after Whitaker moved up and there was never any unification of the three main belts.

 

I wish we had just one champion for every weight like the old days.

 

As an addition to the above, ironically the situation with the Ring Magazine belt at 175 is opposite.

Calzaghe is the Ring Champion, but Erdei by rights should be, and would be but for the fact that Ring Magazine had suspended issuing belts at the time when DM fought Hill.