Lineal explained by someone who actually knows.

Preface:

Everyday there's a new thread debating whether or not Tyson Fury is lineal, or will be lineal after ring strips him, or some such similar TF-Lineal debate goes on and as I read what both sides of the prevailing opinions are saying it's very clear to me most of you guys have a loose understanding of lineal at best.

That's pretty understandable really. To understand what lineal is you need to be comfortable with about 300 years of boxing history. Lineal is one of the traditions that connect Figg's boxing to today. It's one of the more obvious reasons why LPRR is considered boxing and not just some ye olde sport that used to exist like jousting, or half-swording, or some such bull****.

I'll try to do this as completely without getting bogged down with historical narrative, but if youse want it in detail wait on me to complete my HW champions thread from ancient to present: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/heavyweight-champions-from-ancient-to-present-wip.597272/

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What we call lineal is just the original title, old title, universal, pre-body, whatever you like really that means before modern organization. So these rules people talk about like someone with the authority to do it sat down and wrote out a ton of rules for who is and is not a champion don't actually exist. Instead what we have is history and tradition. So when you think on lineal titles and who is and isn't lineal or how it's passed on what you really should be thinking about is how the title was passed before bodies made rules for how their titles would be passed.

Basically at the start it was I can do this because the last guy who was champion did it, then after a while it became you must do this because all the champions who came before you did. With an ever present dash of I am champion so suck one.

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Quick Ring sidebar to address the folks who seem to believe Ring controls the title:

Ring was started in the early 20th century. It popularized the lineal title it didn't create it. Ring was founded by a journalist who, like so many, romanticized with the past. Nat loved him some bare knuckle probably because to him that was just his father and grandfather's era, that's why he kept the traditions alive in his own way, but that's also probably why some of you seem to think the Ring magazine has some control over the lineal title. No, the Ring never controlled it, they just did what I'm doing now, explained it. They have their own title, it is what you'd think a magazine title would be, it's promotional. It's purpose is to boost the media presence of the champion.
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So why do we call it lineal? Because the lineal is an attempt to recapture the singularity of the past. So for sometime after 1910 before the 1970s the old tradition of how to become champion was replaced by sanctioning bodies who acknowledged different champions which caused a yearning in fans to revert back to the old way. The old tenants never left boxing, but the bodies did protect champions from them so fans revived a few. The man who beat the man, and takes on all legit challengers with the champion's discretion being what legitimizes a challenge being what was most important to them and considering the old title had no other name beside Heavyweight Champion one had to be drummed up to differentiate itself from the bodies and that suited the nature of the title. Lineal, just like it's practice, was named out of informal committee, chance if you like. Like a meme or a trend, it just became the most popular term to refer to the original.

So how did we get these rules? Like I said in the beginning the early champions were just doing whatever the hell they wanted. Figg was a champion because he claimed it and claimed to take on any challenger while touring England. The next guy, Whittaker, became champion because Figg said he was the new champion, Whittaker defended his title against a Venetian then lost it in the first man who beat the man transfer to a man named Peartree.

Not to be condescending, but it should be pointed out in case some missed it; becoming champion by appointment of the previous champion was how the first title transfer ever in boxing happened. It was solidified by the win, what would have happened had Bob lost is only speculation, but what did happen was the champion said this next guy is the new best then he proved it. This is where the very basic tenet real champions defend their title comes from.

Peartree then defeats Whittaker in the second title transfer and first man to beat the man. Then Peartree get beaten by a man named Gritton. Gritton, Whittaker, and Peartree were all Figg students, which yes I too question the legitimacy of any of this given it was all in-house Figg Amphitheatre fighters trained by James Figg himself fighting in his theatre, but it doesn't matter because the legend is what formed what became lineal anyway. These three were not the only Figg students in town however, and Figg was still seen as the authority on who can and cannot box. Pipes, another student, claims the title when Figg retires and Figg cosigns as Gritton quietly slips into more of a management role at the Amphitheatre. Pipes is the first champion to claim it and received it due to the lack of challenge and co-sign of a living former champion.

Now we finally get to some trouble, Taylor, yes another student-o-Figg, claimed the championship following the death of James Figg and usurped Figg's Amphitheatre. He built his own Amphitheatre where he trained boxers and fought.

Taylor's claim was not without some bearing as Pipes had lost to a Gretting, Gretting then lost to Taylor, Taylor felt he had won the title. By the time Figg had died the new star pupil of Figg was no longer Pipes. Jack Broughton enters the scene to end the dispute in Figg's House favor. Broughton would be the last of Figg's star pupils but more importantly his acknowledgement of Taylor enough to fight Taylor over the title placed man who beat the man on a pedestal.

Broughton defeats Taylor and restores to title to the control of Figg's Theatre. Broughton as champion uses his position to clarify the rules of fighting then under those rules gets his ass kicked by Slack. Slack is our very first recognized champion who wasn't one of the Figg boys. From here out the champions are tied to the goings on of the past. People start to romanticize the time of Figg and there is more of an expectations around a champion's conduct.

Now I'm going to skip to the late 1820s. I'm actually just going to c/p a recent post of mine so if you've read it skip:

Deak Burke was denied his championship status by previous champion Jem Ward coming out of retirement and claiming it five or six times before Deaf'Un finally forced Jem in the ring with him.

Jem would retire and "The Fancy" or matchmakers/backers of the day would establish a championship match for the new champion to be crowned. Deaf won, Jem would announce that the match was not championship material so he'll come out of retirement to be champ a little longer. Jem avoided fighting Burke but did fight and was recognized as champion. So Burke would get to be champion for a few months then Jem would have it wiped from history, where it remains. After fighting a few exhibitions and **** like that Jem would retire and select his choice for the next guy to be champion. Burke would whoop that guy, once killing a poor ******* named Byrne, and Jem would repeat the process until the Fancy had enough of him and forced him to either remain retired, they wouldn't put up a purse for him again, or fight Burke. Jem finally retired for good and never came back, Burke was seen as champion finally.


Let's jump ahead to the last time the lineal traditions were used in an attempt to deny the new champion their status. 1908 the first black champion to be recognized by the lineal traditions fight 1899 lineal champion Jim Jefferies. Jeffries, like Ward before, was there to get rid of Johnson's reign not just beat him. The plan was to get the white champion in there and negate the Hart, Burns, and Johnson reigns. Europe being less racist than America and having some attachment to the idea of fairplay took issue with that, among other things. by 1913 the IBU was formed and the traditions of the lineal title no longer mattered as much.

During the early 20th century the lineal title wasn't something people cared too much about because they only had one champion anyone. The IBU champion was the lineal champion, and the times the IBU, NYSAC, and NBA differed can be counted on one hand until about the 60s. By the 70s the WBA and WBC were in full swing and people agreed so much with what they were doing what with there different champions and such that the fans revived lineal traditions to follow who was the "real" champion apexing in the WBA fracturing into the WBA, IBF, and WBO.


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I focused on the ye olde because the ye olde is where the traditions came from. If y'all want more on sanctioning bodies that should probably be it's own thread...I've already written a novella here. No proof read done, it took long enough to type out. Point out typos and **** that don't make none sense and I'll fix it.

 

Definatively? I think you need hindsight for that. I'm not trying to be a dick, I just don't think it's answerable by people who are living during the time.

Do I see Tyson as the Lineal? As long as he's legally a professional boxer and hasn't lost he is the lineal champion and can hold that up for as long as he can manage to be a professional boxer who never fights or loses.

I thought AJ as the new lineal until Fury made a point to claim it and got his license back.