Wlad will tie Joe Louis with his next KO.

[Scott9945]

I've also heard it said you can be considered a champion if you're a Ring or lineal champion. Do you not agree with that?

Ring champion? You mean the boxing magazine that is owned by a boxing promoter? Their title means nothing to me.

[Xyei]

The problem with the lineal route is that you then end up with dudes like Shannon Briggs as the Heavyweight champion (He was: He won it from George Foreman who won it from Michael Moorer). I find that rather unpalatable.

The Ring Champion had promise at one time but like most things that get started with good intentions but no means of enforcing it eventually ran out of steam and now they're even backpeddling on their criteria for crowning their champs. Hell, too many weight classes don't even HAVE a Ring Champion.

Really, the only way this mess is going to be fixed is to have all these Alphacrap organizations go belly-up and we can get back to having ONE champion in each division. Right now you can get a belt out of a gumball machine and call yourself "champ".

Poet

This.... It's so ****** that there are so many damn belts in each class. They make it almost impossible for one person to hold all the belts because of all the BS mandatory cans they end up having to fight for each belt. Then the strip a fighter of the belt if he can't fight them all at once. Such crap. I'd love it if we could go back to the old days of having one belt per weight class but sadly, I don't see that ever happening.

[Scott9945]

This.... It's so ****** that there are so many damn belts in each class. They make it almost impossible for one person to hold all the belts because of all the BS mandatory cans they end up having to fight for each belt. Then the strip a fighter of the belt if he can't fight them all at once. Such crap. I'd love it if we could go back to the old days of having one belt per weight class but sadly, I don't see that ever happening.

No, it will never happen. If there is ever an undisputed heavyweight champion he'll have to drop a couple of titles the first time he makes a title defense. These organizations don't want undisputed champions, and the truth is neither do the promoters or networks. More titles mean more title fights that can be packaged and marketed for TV.

Another factor that nobody wants to consider is that these groups get a cut for recognizing a title fight. And very few champions want to be writing FOUR checks everytime they defend their title.

[TheGreatA]

Unifying all the belts started making less and less sense when IBF & WBO came along. There are very few champions who have ever held all the belts, due to obvious political reasons. It's just more trouble than it is worth.

Wladimir's claim to being the undisputed king of heavyweights is only thwarted by his brother, unfortunately. Vitali was recognized by most as the successor to Lennox Lewis, especially after beating Corrie Sanders. After coming back from a brief retirement, he has not lost a fight.

In any case, past or present, a title holder would find it difficult to claim himself the "true" champion with another contender as strong as Vitali around. In this case we have to admit that they're brothers who will never fight each other and that Vitali seems willing to admit Wladimir's position as the number 1 heavyweight, but his retirement would further cement it.

Think of a situation between Ali and Frazier, with Ali coming back from his exile, except with the two being brothers. How would it affect their legacies?