Recent Welterweight Lineage

Yeah good call, Williams was still highly rated for a long time. Everyone is forgetting that because of his recent poor performance at 154 against Martinez where many would say he lost. But a year or so ago he was one of the most feared guys at 147 even though he was doing other weight classes as well and he had that win over Margarito as well.

 

If that's the case then I don't see how the lineal title could still be vacant after the fight. It should have been Cotto. What other criteria is needed to gain the belt from being vacant?

I mean, the lineal title will have to pass on to someone else after Floyd retired right? If you're saying that it's still Floyd because he's undefeated it means that had Floyd not returned from retirement, Floyd will forever be the lineal title holder, and that's just dumb. If you're saying it's still vacant, then what other criteria is there than having the #1 and #2 ranked welters fight each other? I honestly don't think any other criteria matters...

 

And most people didn't consider Calzaghe linear at 168 until he'd beaten Kessler.

Dunno where this no.1 vs no.3 crap came from, except that Ring Magazine allow it for their title in certain undefined circumstances. It should have no bearing on our view of linearship however.

 

To me either we consider SSM the linear champ or is vacant... I am linient to say it's vacant.

 

Margo was more like #4 than #2 when he fought Cotto.

 

I agree with the first paragraph but there are other exceptions for example most people would accept that Pac vs JMM II was to establish lineage even though Valero (i think) held a title at the time.

 

I understand that technically Mayweather never lost the linear title, but I also firmly believe that when the linear champ RETIRES or fights out of the weightclass, he is abandoning the linear title and then the top 2 contenders can fight for it. Mosley is the CURRENT Linear Champ, Mayweather is the TECHNICAL linear champ.

 

there is no point in time since Mayweather retired that the top 2 Welterweight contenders fought each other. People are getting their rankings mixed up. When Margarito beat Cotto, Cotto was #1 Contender and Margo was something like #4. When Mosley beat Margarito, Margo was #1 and Mosley was #3.

There has been no fight between #1 and #2.

 

This :deal When the linear champ RETIRES, you have to assume it is permanent. The title cannot remain vacant. Cotto/Margo was for welterweight supremacy. Hell after Floyd won the linear title and then fought outside of WW, he traded the linear ww for the money he got from Oscar IMHO. Fans NEED to start making these fighters take responsibility for jumping around chasing money. YES he kept his P4P supremacy, but he lost his WW supremacy because of the Oscar fight, the Hatton fight and Retirement. He bacame irrelevant to the WW division. So the WW division moves on without him. Now we are here and he wants to be relevant again. :good So let him beat the true champ there to do it.

 

So what man, so if Floyd never comes back and the #1 and #2 NEVER fight are you telling me there will NEVER be another true WW champ. Come on man linear shminear, Boxing must move on and Mosley has come out on top. I could see an argument if Williams never left the division, I'd say him and Mosley would need to fight for it but the guy has moved on to bigger divisions. Mosley is the last man standing and he is the rightful champ.

 

:good

 

Mayweather was the lineal champion until he retired and broke the thread. The new lineage was established by the battle between Margarito and Cotto. Mosley beat Margarito and is now the champion. If Floyd wants that title back - he has to go through Shane Mosley. Some rankings don't even have Floyd at #2 anymore for example ESPN has PBF at #3 welterweight behind Mosley and Pacquiao.

 

Floyd should not even be a top 5 ranked WW right now! He has not fought a ranked WW, and I mean legitimately ranked WW since Baldomir 3.5 years ago!

 

You're correct. :good