No, he was going to be stripped if he hadn’t vacated. It was a tainted win and he ducked the contracted rematch. He hasn’t defended this supposed lineal title. Frank is talking out of his backside as usual.
What's so dumb is if we believe Fury is the lineal champion this would mean that TBC would then 'be the man' if they beat Fury. That's simply absurd!!! Have a look at the WW lineal champions. They have the last two as Mayweather then Pacquiao. Is Horn now the lineal champion at 147lbs? It's utter nonsense.
Lineage is what it is. It's an important concept when the champion is active and fighting top contenders, as it overrides alphabet idiocy that always tries to get in the way. There have been too many instances to name of legitimate champions being stripped of titles for frivolous reasons, and we're well past the point when a belt on its own had any real intrinsic value. The lineage principle falls apart though when a champion is inactive (like Fury), or deliberately avoids the best fighters in the division (like Foreman in the 90s when it eventually passed on to Shannon Briggs). It's of course ridiculous to suggest that Fury can take what will be close to 3 years off, have a couple of warm-up fights, and still have a valid claim on the championship. However, as a promotional widget it's the right thing for FW to do to help set up a megabucks fight with Joshua/Wilder down the line. If it's good enough for Jeffries against Johnson and Ali against Frazier, Team Fury might as well run with it.
That's the major point. Someone can only really claim to be the lineal champion if they are active and defeating the best in the division. The lineage breaks when the champion doesn't fight for 3 years
Fury HAS been banned from boxing not for life though ... what you think the injunction and 3 year lay off was just time to sort his head out. Hen didnt steal the belt however it was a clear victory over Klit.
Nope, he's now free to regain the championship he left behind and build himself into contention again. But with all that we know now, do you really think his biggest victory and path to it isn't tainted at all? I myself think it's ridiculous that the Hammer result still stands, which is just as bad as Teper still having the KO2 victory over Price. And it seems clear that they timed the retroactive ban to not include the Wlad fight, because that would have wiped the whole achievement entirely.
You mean the drug dealer? Let's not bring drugs in to this when AJ was convicted for dealing. Do you think he never sampled the goods? AJ has done what you've said in your post, fought them 1 by 1 and got the belts. He now holds all the belts which Fury took from Wlad. Would AJ hold them all if it what's happened to Fury hadn't happened, who knows? But don't bash a man for taking drugs and praise another who sold drugs.
Ex drug dealer. If anything Joshua deserves extra praise for turning his life around. He could have just been another statistic caught in the system but he never and look at him. I can’t condone fury taking peds. I will praise him from turning his life around too though. Turning from a raging 30 stone coke head to fighting for us some going and fair play to him too.
http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_1969 Interesting to note that the Ring still retained Ali as champion during his exile, at least until Frazier had unified the vacant fragmented championship against Jimmy Ellis. Obviously different times, different fighters, different circumstances. However, it does show how the "man who beat the man" concept was viewed back in the day.
