Shannon Briggs Lineal Belt

The worst part about Briggs being a lineal heavyweight champion is that he clearly lost that fight to Foreman. Conversely, Axel Shulz arguably beat Foreman and would have been the linel champion.

 

It's hard to say Shannon Brigg's in the same breath as those other guys mentioned.
But then again,Big George was a few years off of 50 ,it was inevitable he was gonna lose sooner rather than later.

 

Normally a lineal title fight comes with a physical trinket. Since this fight didn't have it(not even a Ring belt) they had to make one up.

It is my belief the Ring has an obligation to name champs from the period they weren't doing that if they want to keep their job as the guardians of the lineal title so one could just view this as a proxy for the Ring belt.

 

Say whatever you want about Briggs he managed to make himself a 2x world champion. He proved this was not a fluke. Briggs was better then Maskaev. Hes not the worst HW champion not even close.

 

Schulz got 2 more title shots as a result of that. He lost them both. In his home country that has been accused of tipping the scale for their hometown fighters. At some point its his fault.

If Schulz was robbed he was fairly compensated for that. Schulz failed to convert that compensation into a championship.

 

There are a few instances in history where the concept of lineage was stretched a bit.

 

No argument here. Foreman did refuse to have a rematch with Schulz which is why Briggs was able to able to take the lineal title from big George becasue he technically didn't lose the belt in the ring. Schulz got to fight for the vacated IBF belt against Botha and Moorer and lost both of those fights. He was good boxer but lacked the power and aggression to win those close fights.

With that said, I still think Schulz legitimately beat Foreman and should have been the lineal champ. Briggs 100% got a gift against Foreman.

 

Meh.. foreman had been stripped years earlier and the decision Briggs got was iffy. Weak claim even if it is legit in its own way

 

Refusing to fight ranked contenders should result in loss of lineal status. Otherwise it loses any meaning whatsoever.

 

Schulz was robbed against Foreman. Foreman knew it. George Refused a rematch with Axel got stripped of one his titles after that, (after he had cherry picked the unheard of Schulz) and then was stripped of his other alphabet title for refusing to face Tony Tucker. Instead he got Briggs and he should of won that fight. Briggs a grossly overrated fighter on these boards got a total gift against the 47 year old Foreman.

 

Axel Schulz was a weird combination of a fighter, I only saw a few of his fights, but he had a fan friendly brawling style and was pretty durable as well, but the guy couldn't crack an egg as far as punching power. I think even defensive cutie Chris Byrd hit harder than Schulz.