Not Pound for Pound…Champ for Champ 2009

[crold1]

Linear WW?

He vacated that at retirement. Explicitly got in touch with Ring through his camp and asked Ring to open their belt up among others. He could still play into maintaining lineage, or even re-establish it through him, but he is champion of nada right now.

[BattlingNelson]

He vacated that at retirement. Explicitly got in touch with Ring through his camp and asked Ring to open their belt up among others. He could still play into maintaining lineage, or even re-establish it through him, but he is champion of nada right now.

Ok.

Still Ring-titles and linearity does not go hand in hand and as you say he can still help maintaining lineage. As you know Larry Holmes wasn't considered linear champion before he beat Ali and Ali had been retired for about 2 years before making the comeback.

Would you say that The Floyd-JMM fight is for the linear title as it is still a WW fight?

[crold1]

Ok.

Still Ring-titles and linearity does not go hand in hand and as you say he can still help maintaining lineage. As you know Larry Holmes wasn't considered linear champion before he beat Ali and Ali had been retired for about 2 years before making the comeback.

Would you say that The Floyd-JMM fight is for the linear title as it is still a WW fight?

They aren't the same, but Mayweather made very clear he no longer wished to be champ through all available channels.

And to the last question: No. Marquez isn't a Welterweight. Ali-Holmes (or Johnson-Jeffries) mattered because a new king at Heavyweight emerged and the old returned to challenge. Not the case here, and the catchweight is the first indication. If Mayweather had returned to fight Mosley or Cotto, Welterweights, the winner there would be the strongest claimant.

[cool-jupiter]

Nice to see Cliff Rold do Hozumi Hasegawa justice. I guess Caballero should be included too. Where would Mijares have been in the list if he hadn't lost to the Raging Bull.

[Ch@mpBox@PR]

Ok.

Still Ring-titles and linearity does not go hand in hand and as you say he can still help maintaining lineage. As you know Larry Holmes wasn't considered linear champion before he beat Ali and Ali had been retired for about 2 years before making the comeback.

Would you say that The Floyd-JMM fight is for the linear title as it is still a WW fight?

Damn you put me to think.

In all fairness I think when You retire you are giving up everything.

A new WW lineal chamo needs to be crown.

But by the examples you put, yes JMM can be the lineal JMM!!!!

[Ch@mpBox@PR]

Very good article!!!!!!

[MANGLER]

Pretty good read. I missed this before.

[El_Cholo]

Damn you put me to think.

In all fairness I think when You retire you are giving up everything.

A new WW lineal chamo needs to be crown.

But by the examples you put, yes JMM can be the lineal JMM!!!!

yeah this happened in the LHW division until Calzaghe retired, the lineal went round them all, Tarver, Jones, Hopkins etc.

Off topic here but is the Dawson vs Johnson fight for the Ring title? Can't remember what Johnson is ranked.

[catalinul]

Linear WW?

Nope.

Doesn't work that way.He gave it up.

[BennyST]

Good article. I think a lot of focus has gone off one of the more important things in boxing, as this article pointed out, that being a proper title reign. It can often be easier to jump between divisions fighting certain 'champions' to grab another belt and add another weight division to the resume. While it may look good on paper it often is highly misleading and not a true measure of skills or greatness. It seems that now you don't even need to rule any one division to be considered great. All you have to do is move through a few weight classes and beat a few 'name' fighters and everyone and their dog will jump on the bandwagon. Sadly, this seems more of a constant over the last decade or so.

The thing is I believe that it is more of a test to hold and unify one division these days. Jumping through and picking easy challenges or beating name fighters that are highly beatable is not the same as taking on every challenger, no matter how skilled or high good, and unifying one division and keeping that title for a long period. So few fighters actually are able to rule one division for long periods of time and unify. There are quite a number of long time champs, but are very often of the WBO/IBF type and they never unify.

The way to greatness and true legacy in the future should be the same as what it used to be. That is, a champion should rule one division, try to unify and then hold that title as long as he can defending against the best and then once that is accomplished, move up and around and all over fighting the big name/money fights that are easily winnable against the old great champs etc etc. Taking on all comers in a division, as long as there are good fighters in it, really shows the true grit, skill, will and greatness of a fighter. Taking specific fights through different weight divisions against fighters that the team knows can be definitely beaten just doesn't measure up anymore.

Great for business, bad for the true legacy of boxing and bad for the fans.