Who is the lineal heavyweight champion of the world in boxing?

Wlad took over when Vitali retired. Vitali is my pick.

 

And Lewis ducking Chris Byrd made Byrd the real Champion.

 

There is no lineal champion. The last arguably lineal champ was Vitali Klitschko when he beat Danny Williams, though I personally think the last lineal champ was Lennox Lewis. Wlad has never beaten #2 since he has been #1, and he never will as long as Vitali remains at #2.

In reality, there are only a few lineal champs right now:

LHW - There's some controversy, but it's either Zsolt Erdei or Jean Pascal. If you think Erdei vacated by moving up to cruiserweight and not fighting since then, then it's Pascal, who was #2 when he beat #1 Chad Dawson. If not, then it's Erdei, whose lineage traces from beating Gonzalez, who beat Michalczewski, who beat Hill, who beat Maske to create the lineage.

MW - Sergio Martinez; beat Pavlik, who beat Taylor, who beat Hopkins, who beat Trinidad to create the lineage.

JWW - If you think he hasn't vacated, it's Pacquiao; beat Hatton, who beat Tszyu, who beat Judah to create the lineage.

LW - Juan Manuel Marquez; beat Casamayor, who beat Corrales, who beat Castillo to create the lineage (he didn't lose it in the rematch because Castillo failed to make weight)

Fly - Pongsaklek Wonjongkam; beat Kameda, who beat Naito, who beat Wonjongkam, to beat Tunacao, who beat Singsurat, who beat Pacquiao, who beat Sakasul, who beat Arbachakov, who beat Muangchai, who beat Chitalada, who beat Kim, who beat Chitalada, who beat Bernal, who beat Kobayashi, who beat Cedeno, who beat Magri, who beat Mercedes, who beat Castillo, who beat Cardona, who beat Avelar, who beat Oguma, who beat Park, who beat Canto, who beat Gonzalez to create the lineage.

Light Fly - Giovanni Segura; beat Calderon, who beat Cazares to create the lineage

 

wlad. he beat chagaev and iggy. i know he didnt beat vitali, haye, peter or briggs but he has done enough to be seen as the champ.

 

:deal

 

Once all 4 titles are unified that should count as bringing back Lineage.

 

The third "Fact" is actually an opinion...and that's a fact!

FACT: Just because you place "FACT:" in front of a sentance does not make it so.

 

If that's your requirement, then there would almost never be a lineal titlist, because the damn ABCs always strip guys. By that definition, the only lineal champion in the entire four-belt era is Bernard Hopkins. But there are some other guys who were unarguably the lineal champs because they cleaned out the division - Calzaghe, Hatton, Lewis, etc.

 

:deal

 

Unfortunately that'll probably never happen. Too many politics of the sanctioning bodies to ever allow for true unification. To put it plainly, there's nothing in it for the alphabets.

 

That's the Ring champ, not the lineal champ. Lineal champ needs an undisputed #1 (not undisputed in the sense that he holds all the titles, but undisputed in the sense that he beat the other top fighter, or in certain circumstances, top fighters, in the division). There isn't one, because Wlad is never going to fight Vitali. If Vitali had stayed retired, then Wlad would have become lineal when he beat Chagaev.

One that will be interesting is when Bradley and Alexander fight each other. It's a matchup of #1 vs #2 (in a lot of people's eyes), but there's also a third guy (Khan) who's clearly in the mix. For someone to become new lineal in that weight class, IMO, they'd have to beat both of the other guys to become top dog.

 

You used words like "in vein" and "shamelessly ducked". Those are opinions. There is no info on how much was offered. Obviously it was not enough. More than likely, since Wlad has no trouble selling out a stadium (and in this case he already did), he does not need good opponents, therefore there was no incentive to make a better offer. Plus Chagaev accepted, with a decent enough replacement, I'm sure there were no hard negotiations. SNV has said many times that in his opinion K2 is unreasonable to deal with. That is also widely reported. Also, since this was a last minute thing, the word shamelessly hardly applies. Perhaps SNV would prefer to trains specifically for an opponent. Props to Wlad if he felt he could switch without any problems, as he would have needed to make a much bigger adjustment..another reason why I find it hard to believe the tales told by his camp about making a serious offer.

 

:deal