Who is was the Lineal Welterweight Champion

Unfortunately, that's not how lineal title works.

 

If Floyd has it, then he's holding it hostage.

...anyway, in the WW division, Pac is 1, Floyd was 2, Berto was 3, and Shane 4.

Berto just lost, rumor is that Floyd will be dropped from Ring rankings after May 2 for inactivity.

Pac is possibly starting a new lineage at WW against Shane.

 

:hi:

 

This was a matter of controversy prior to the fight though. Margarito had already defeated Cotto, second in the division prior to the fight. So Margarito could have defeated the second and third-rated fighters without being recognized as the best welterweight. So in addition to those tracing a lineage to Margarito-Cotto, another population traces it to Margarito-Mosley. Finally, a third group traces it to Mayweather-Mosley, arguing that it was a 1-2 or 1-3 match. The majority of course still regards it as vacant. Also, while lineages aren't usually established by triangles, as with Mosley, Margarito, and Cotto, they have been used in other contexts as well. This was how some argued that Roy Jones was a lineal champion at light heavyweight.

 

The Ring moved Ortiz ahead of Mosley, so Pacquiao-Mosley won't be for their title. Frankly, even though Ortiz's placement might be questionable, establishing a lineage with Pacquiao-Mosley would be a complete joke.

 

Paul Williams also played a role here, since Paul already defeated Margarito at WW and could still come back to WW. Plus of course, Mosley already lost to Cotto.

 

oh well,... but a new lineage should be established when the top 2 fight each other and the titleholder is inactive for over a year.

 

If Mosley vs Mayweather wasn't #1 vs #2 - then something is seriously wrong.
You have a series of fights where it could easily be seen as #1 vs #2 and for some reason that isn't the case.

In my view, Floyd is lineal champion no matter what way you swing it.

 

Floyd came back at WW and fought Marquez. Although he won, the Ring did not give him the #2 ranking for obvious reasons. So in short, he was not ranked #2 by the Ring prior to the Mosley fight.

 

I agree with this.
And I HATE floyd....

 

Believe it or not, it's still Floyd Mayweather Jr.

 

Floyd should fight again if he's interested in keeping his lineal

 

There are only two good "deciders" of this that I look to and one is CBZ and one is Ring. Neither perfect, by any stretch, although both are used as sources for the almighty and much improved boxrec. Ring had a meeting to decide if Cotto/Margarito should've been for the vacant title, after FMJ's retirement. They decided against that. I don't necessarily agree or disagree.

CBZ seems to have decided that Margarito/Mosley should've been for the vacant title. I don't know if I agree with that either. Mosley was granted their recognition as linear welterweight champion when he smashed Margarito.

CBZ has not updated this since the Floyd fight and it may be that they simply haven't updated or that they chose to declare the FMJ/Mosley fight a non-title fight because Mosley's official WBA title was not on the line, as per Floyd sticking up for himself against basically being shaken down by the WBA. If that's the case, I think they did a wishy-washy thing there, which goes against the original point-shirking the recognition of shitty sanctioning bodies.

I don't know though. For me, you might as well call the title vacant from the time of FMJ's retirement to now. When real linear status is vacated by the champion for retirement or weight class change, things can get very confusing when you're trying to cut through the ABC bull**** and go straight to "the man" status.

 

no need for the hate part, how long should we wait to consider it vacated since Floyd has no urge to fight again?

 

It's either Mayweather or nobody. When Mayweather beat Judah and Baldomir, he won it and when he retired that was it.

Either it ends there and is now vacant OR


The top 2 Welterweights at the time fought Margarito and Cotto, Margarito won. He then fought Shane Mosley, got wet while swimming and Mosley became the guy. Mayweather beat Mosley so arguably its Mayweather again.