The best HW never to hold the lineal title.

I just found my July 2004 issue of The Ring and as of March 10, 2004 Vitali was ranked #1, Byrd #2 and Sanders #3. Vitali-Sanders fought on April 24, 2004, so you might be correct here. However, Byrd did fight to a draw with Golota one week before on April 17th...

 

Virtually everybody except the fighters that the colour line was drawn against got some sort of chance at the lineal title.

If they didn’t fight for it directly, they were given a fight that would have secured a shot at it.

That is what separates Jackson, Langford and Wills from the other candidates.

Peter Jackson could very reasonably have been installed as the betting favourite, had he been granted a shot at either Sullivan or Corbett.

Sam Langford and Harry Wills have better resumes than most lineal champions.

You don’t seem to get these sort of standouts, once the colour bar is removed.

 

The August issue was labeled "Summer 2004" and the ratings were:

The Ring – Summer 2004
(as of April 7, 2004)

World Champion:
Vacant
1. Vitali Klitschko
2. Chris Byrd
3. Corrie Sanders
4. Roy Jones
5. James Toney
6. John Ruiz
7. Wladimir Klitschko
8. Fres Oquendo
9. Hasim Rahman
10. Monte Barrett

In the September issue they'd shifted this way:

The Ring – September 2004
(as of May 5, 2004)

World Champion:
Vitali Klitschko
1. Chris Byrd
2. John Ruiz
3. James Toney
4. Hasim Rahman
5. Monte Barrett
6. Andrew Golota
7. Fres Oquendo
8. Lamon Brewster
9. Jameel McCline
10. Joe Mesi

I like using Ring's ratings as a reference, but they're not perfect. In this case I think they were in a rush to fill their heavyweight title, though I believe Vitali was clearly the best in the division at this point.

Once Lennox Lewis retired I find it hard to trace the lineal title. There are so many organizations around with belts it's hard to unify. Yeah, Wlad eventually became lineal champ, but it was like he sort of distilled onto the throne. I'm no expert on the post-Lewis era, so I have a very hard time pinpointing the moment Wlad became lineal champion. It's more like, "well, he beat this belt holder and this belt holder and this belt holder and this contender, so he's the champ since we can't really expect him to fight his brother."

 

Are you trying to skew this in favour of Sam Langford?

 

On the flip side of the coin, Vitally might disqualify himself based on his title claim!

The lineal title has changed hands on shakier pretexts, than him beating Sanders.

If you guys all accepted this claim, I would not be the lone voice of dissent!

 

Jurgen Blin

 

I have this crazy thought in my head, that Peter Jackson would have gone the furthest of all of them, if let off the leash!

He would probably have been talked about as one of the greater heavyweight champions, well into the 1930s!

 

Is Max Schmelling a lock as the lineal champion under the number 1 & 2 contender rule?