Lineal Welterweight Championship?

[Easy-E]

Floyd Mayweather was the lineal welterweight champion when he retired.
That lineal title was gone when floyd retired, and since no other fighter beat him. So, when he came out of retirement, would he he still technically the lineal welterweight champion?

Mosley lost to Cotto, Cotto lost to Marg, Mosley beat Marg, its essentially a cluster**** with no outright champion.

Also, please no flaming, just legitimate responsese as to why this is or is not the case.

[Mr. David]

To my memory, and this is something I've seen written by the editors of Ring Magazine, Mayweather, when he retired, said he was vacating his "Ring Magazine" belt.

While that magazine's belt doesn't constitute lineage, in this case it coincided with welterweight lineage.

He retired. Even if the retirement lasted less than a year, he announced his retirement, gave up his belts, and even reacted as such.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that Margarito-Cotto was NOT for the lineage. I say this because Margarito-Mosley also wasn't for the Ring Magazine belt.

This came from Dan Rafael in January, prior to Margarito-Mosley:

For the record, I strongly disagree with Ring magazine's decision not to allow the Margarito-Mosley fight to be for its vacant welterweight championship.

I believe Paul Williams played into the equation in 2008 for Margarito-Cotto not to be for the lineage. I think it played into the equation again in 2009, even though, as Rafael noted, there was no indication Williams would ever fight at welterweight again.

I believe the lineage is vacant right now.