At that time Maske, Hill and Michalczewski were top 3 guys. Maske and Hill unified the titles so what is you question about? I understand you are Jones fan and try to bring something fishy up?
The lineal belt is too arbitrary and too often related to happenstance, rather than rewarding the best fighter. The Jones/DM thing is a good example. I understand the charges of bias and can respect that perspective on things, but for me, you need you need to have the flexibility to make qualitiative assessment, but a simple A to B to C results in too many weird/undeserving champs.
This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected There is no such thing as a Lineal "belt". The Ring gives it's belt to the Lineal Champ, and they are accurate 99% of times.
Mormeck has a simple opinion about it and it's not completely stupid. Ring etc. can say what they want, you can have 2 belts, you can be lineal or something else...if another guy in your division has a major belt (WBC-WBA-IBF and now WB0) you are not THE champion. The only way to become the man : obtaining a major belt, defending a couple of times and challenging the other titleholders to reach the goal "collecting all the belts". He failed but his division looks good now , guys in the top 10 don't avoid each other at cruiser.
I agree with Ironchamp.. Undisputed is more important than all the titles and historical bru ha ha you can conjure up. of course.. if all thress are on the same guy, like bhop back in the day, that's coolest Or like they will be on the winner of JC-VW
Not always. There are some pretty glaring examples of people claiming to be linear by a strict interpretation, while the better fighters -- and bigger money fights -- are happening for the Ring belt. None of them is perfect, though. Only a unified organization could see to that.
Undisputed Champion - As long as there are other titleholders (WBC, IBF, WBA, and to some WBO), the championship will be disputed because there are others with a claim of being champion. In a multi belt environment, being undisputed champion has the most prestige. Linear Title - The man who beat the man who beat the man. This title is the true title in a single belt environment where the title is passed on by beating the previous titleholder or by fighting for the vacant title. I have it second most preferred because we operate in a multi belt environment; that is our reality. Ring Title - This is the least preferred title. To get in the position to earn a vacant Ring title you have to either become the undisputed champion or be the #1 contender fighting the #2, or #3 when the title is vacant. Who is #1, #2, #3 is generally based on exposure and winning one of the original titles (WBC, WBA, IBF and now WBO). Fighters gain fame and notoriety when they win one of the alphabet belts. The undisputed title is therefore in the current situation my preferred choice because in most circumstances it ends the dispute as to who is champion. If their is an undisputed champion, the Linear or Ring champion will generally have to fight him to restore credibility.
It doesn't exist. It's more like a "moral" title. You can say, however, that the Ring Belt goes most times to the Lineal Champ. The Ring belt is de facto the belt for the Lineal Champ.
Wait a minute. If a guy wins the linear belt that means he did something right. I mean at some point the linear title was held by a legitimate champion so the guy who beats him has to be considered legitimate himself and the same for the next guy. When Holyfield won back the titles from Bowe he became the linear champ again. As legitimate a champion as you will find. However, Michael Moorer (not exactly a worldbeater) took the belts from Evander and regardless of what you think of Moorer he legitimately beat "the man" and became linear champ. That gives him credibility whether we like it or not. Foreman beat Moorer and Briggs beat Foreman (at least the judges thought he did) so Briggs nabbed the linear title. Was Briggs the best fighter in the world at that time? Absolutely not. However, he did earn himself a spot in boxing immortality albeit in a much lesser sense than ATG status. For all of his BS, Shannon Briggs is still part of the lineage.