WBC HEAVYWEIGHT 1. Vitaly Klitschko (Ukraine) 2. Corrie Sanders (South Africa) 3. Joe Mesi (US) 4. Juan Carlos Gomez (Cuba) 5. James Toney (US) 6. Hasim Rahman (US) 7. David Tua (New Zealand) 8. Mike Tyson (US) 9. Eliecer Castillo (Cuba) NABF 10. Jamel McCline (US) 11. Henry Akinwande (Nigeria) 12. Vassily Jirov (Kazakhstan) 13. Faruq Saleem (US) 14. Owen Beck (Jamaica) 15. Monte Barrett (US) 16. Dominick Guinn (US) 17. Derrick Jefferson (US) 18. Luan Krasniqi (Gerrmany) EBU 19. Oleg Maskaev (Uzbekistan) 20. Lance Whitaker (US) 21. Kirk Johnson (Canada) 22. Timo Hoffman (Germany) 23. Jeremy Williams (US 24. Dennis Bakhton (Kazakhstan-Russia) INTL 25. Sinan Samil San (Turkey) 26. Michael Sprott (GB) COMM 27. Marcelo Dominguez (Argentina) 28. Samuel Peter (Nigeria) YOUTH 29. Peter Okhello (Uganda) OPBF 30. Kevin McBride (Ireland) WBA Heavyweight 1 . VITALY KLITSCHKO UKR 2 . CORRIE SANDERS S.A 3 . WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO (EBA) UKR 4 . HASIM RAHMAN USA 5 . DAVID TUA N.Z 6 . JAMES TONEY USA 7 . JOE MESI (NABF) USA 8 . LANCE WHITAKER (NABA) USA 9 . NICOLAY VALUEV (PABA) RUS 10. LAMON BREWSTER USA 11. EVANDER HOLYFIELD USA 12. FRES OQUENDO P.R. 13. FARUQ SALEEM USA 14. JAMEEL McCLINE USA 15. OWEN BECK (LAC) JAM WBO & IBF Couldn't rank because Vitali was a wbc beltholder and sanders had just relinquished WBO belt (at the time their policy was to not rank other organisation champs atsch) Ring and boxing monthly both also had vitali top as did sports illustrated and many other magazines I can't fit on here due to word limits. Ok Now it's your turn; What had mosley done to be ranked in the top 2 of the division?
Mayweather lost his lineal title the minute he retired. Did Ali stay lineal when he was banned? Did Vitali stay lineal (if you ever considered him to be) when he was retired for 4 years?
Lineal champ is overated...... It's not a representation of who the best in the division is or who beat the best fighters anymore..... Someone can have IBF, WBA, and WBO with multiple defenses and another dude can beat the WBC champ who was the lineal champ and never even defend the title and be considered lineal champ..... Obviously the dude with the WBA, IBF and WBO is more accomplished. As a Floyd fan I can admit that....that being said Floyd is the lineal champ..... and the man he beat to get it back not only held the lineal title he was the consensus #1 welterweight in the world.
What's the use of being the champ if you aint the best fighter? I suppose there's some merit in being the man who beat the man who beat the man who beat man who.....................beat flash ellorde but is it enough to put someone above Alexis Arguello? a man who in that division fought castillo, limon, edwards and chacon? I wouldn't say so. If you look at serrano's opposition around that same time it is absolutely woeful in comparison. The worst claim though might possibly be gus lesnevich who in march 42 fought jimmy bivins at 148 pounds so he didn't have to put his title on the line and he was battered kncoked down and lost a 10 round decision, of course he never gave bivins a rematch and bivins in the meantime beat everyone else around in the division. Infact no one of the worst lineal claims I can recall is Freddie Cochrane, he had maybe 1 ww fight in 6 years against fritzie zivic who had just been beaten by mike kaplan, then freddie saunters off to the war, comes back a hero, gets blitzed by rocky graziano but is STILL seen as the "lineal" ww champion. He then gets battered by a guy ray robinson had already beaten, TWICE! all the whilse robinson is kicking arse from 135 to 160. Basically my point is that whilst there is an inherent beauty in having some lineal claim back to the good old days, it ceratinly isn't the be all and end all. Mayweather is the best WW because he dominated marquez, mosley and ortiz whilst pac had pronlems with both mosley and marquez. Floyd's ranking is certainly not being the man who beat baldomir. I mean baldomir's claim is from what? beating judah who stopped spinks who barely got by mayorga who stopped forest who beat mosley who fought with oscar. Oscar v Mosley was basically a way of handing oscar back the belt that had been stolen from him by tito trinidad. Mosley had only had a handful of ww fights and non deserving of a top 2 ranking, which is why that upset victory is absolutely legendary. I agree with you're argument about undisputed though. There is logic that once a man becomes undisputed champion, he should only lose his belt in the ring and there should be a chain of succession; that's perfectly valid although I disagree because it sometimes leads to ridiculous circumstances (foreman's horrific "championship2 run from 94 for example). Obviously naysayer is wrong about this whole 1 v 2 bull**** otherwise ray robinson would never have been crowned champ at ww having beaten tommy bell. Anyways I've probably completely digressed from the point you were making. I just hope you take the time to read my ramblings
I totally agree with this. if people are to follow linearity it should be on a basis that the champ retires his belt. Otherwise you have the daft situation where james jeffries was champ for about 11 years.
Shane Mosley was not the lineal champion at 147 for the same reason Floyd wasn't when he made his comeback in 2009.
I totally agree about your point with multiple belts vs 1 belt. Agree 100% Mosley after beating Margo was certainly number 1 in the world. The only dispute some might have is that whilst he went inactive, pac beat cotto so took over the top spot. Then again Pac did duck the mosley fight so there might be merit in keeping mosley top, something I haven't considered in much detail actually, but I remember roach saying he'd only fight mosley at 142 or something. hmmmm worth pondering that.
You've just proven to everyone exactly how ****ing clueless you are. Using alphabet organization's rankings to make your point? Really? Those rankings are constantly being auctioned off to the highest bidder and EVERYONE knows it. Does anyone here remember when the WBO had a DEAD guy in it's rankings? Come back when you have something for me above the chatter of drooling ******s...
Well, for one, the Cyberboxingzone regards the first de la Hoya Shane Mosley fight as a contest for the Linear 147 lb crown. So, it stands to reason that they considered it a contest between the two highest rated 147lb fighters.
Exactly HOW does Pac take over the top spot @ 147 by beating Cotto when Margarito had beat Cotto FIRST? Exactly how does that work?
What's the use of being the "best fighter" - a completely SUBJECTIVE designation - in a division if you ain't the champ?