Hall of Famer and Showtime boxing broadcaster Steve Farhood is not exactly in agreement with Tyson Fury's claim of being the lineal champion of the weight class.
Back in November of 2015, Fury outboxed Wladimir Klitschko to capture the WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO world titles.
Klitschko had ruled the heavyweight division, without a loss, for over a decade.
Following that loss, Fury walked away from the sport for over two years - as he battled mental health issues and substance abuse.
All of his world titles, which went vacant, were eventually captured by Anthony Joshua in wins over Klitschko, Charles Martin and Joseph Parker.
Fury ballooned to 400-pounds and nobody ever expected him to fight again - but he did.
Fury returned to the sport in June of this year. After two easy wins, he fought to a controversial draw with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder on December 1 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Farhood, like many other experts, view the lineal title as a prestigious status which trumps the world titles being issued by the sanctioning bodies.
However, he says Fury - in his opinion - lost that lineal title status when he became inactive for over two years.
"The reason I might not give it as much credence as under normal circumstances is because he retired and left boxing. If he was the lineal champion and left boxing, you can argue that that takes away his lineal title because he retired. Had he never retired, that would be different," Farhood said to On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
"I don’t want to give the alphabets too much credit and Wilder is obviously an alphabet champion with the WBC, but there’s something to be said about lineal titles. It kind of overrides the alphabets at times because we know the alphabets can be nonsensical in who they choose to be champions and who they give title fights to. To me, Fury lost the lineal title when he retired for personal reasons."
