Who is the lineal HW champion?

[Nay_Sayer]

Fury is the Champion. Period, end of. Just because he's been inactive doesn't mean he automatically loses his claim. There is precedent. Jack Dempsey sat on the HW title for *3* years and then subsequently lost it to Gene Tunney.

Fury is the Champion until he's beat or retires...

[famicommander]

The lineal title is vacant, and has been since Fury got popped for PEDs and used the word "retirement".

As much as I'm a Wilder fan, he can't become lineal by beating Fury. Fury can't take two years and seven months off for retirement, PED ban, and food/booze/coke binges, then come back and fight two bums before Wilder and still claim to be lineal.

Retiring vacates the lineal title. Just like Pacquiao. If you consider Fury the lineal heavyweight champion, that means you considered Jeff Horn the lineal welterweight champion before Crawford beat him. And that's just silly. Pac vacated the lineal title when he retired, as did Fury.

Wilder vs Joshua is the lineal fight. Period.

[Kezzer]

Oh, so it's based on nothing. By the way, who did Joshua's belts belong to in 2015? Did that person ever lose those belts? Also, was Klitschko the WBA champion when Joshua fought him, or did they simply gift the bout the title?

When you grow older you will learn that just because you have an opinion doesn’t make you right. People view things in different ways anyway anyone who claims fury is lineal I don’t mind, anyone who claims Joshua has a claim is also quite justified. Thirdly anyone who claims it needs wilder to meet Joshua to determine it - again, they are quite entitled to their opinion.

[Kezzer]

Fury is the Champion. Period, end of. Just because he's been inactive doesn't mean he automatically loses his claim. There is precedent. Jack Dempsey sat on the HW title for *3* years and then subsequently lost it to Gene Tunney.

Fury is the Champion until he's beat or retires...

He’s retired more than once since he won the title. I’m

[Accolade]

When you grow older you will I’ll learn that just because you have an opinion doesn’t make you right. People view things in different ways anyway anyone who claims fury is lineal I don’t mind, anyone who claims Joshua has a claim is also quite justified. Thirdly anyone who claims it needs wilder to meet Joshua to determine it - again, they are quite entitled to their opinion.

Anyone claiming Joshua as the lineal isn't "quite justified" you dimwit. That isn't an opinion; it's a falsehood.

[New England]

call it vacant. fury won lineage off of klitschko and retired.

winner of wilder - joshua is the lineal champion. fight won't happen if eddie has anythig to say abouyt it. expect it in 2020.

[aboutfkntime]

Bro, I changed my mind : I remember Tyson Fury tweeted he was not applying for his Boxing license at least two times! so, so that means the lineage was vacant! A.J vs. Klitschko was #1. vs. #2! Yeah Klitschko is good for a #2. spot two years after Tyson Fury beat him! Who else previously held more belts?! IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO!

no way

" lineage " is not determined by #1 facing #2..... because, #3 could be the better fighter

e.g. Povetkin could beat Joshua

the only way you can become " lineal " champ is by beating a unified (UNDISPUTED, so..... all 4 recognized titles) champ..... and Fury is the only guy who did that

the IBO doesn't count

the only fight that could currently achieve that is Wilder/Joshua..... until that happens, Fury is the lineal champ

I accept the argument that Fury retired..... but it is a weak argument, because nobody thought that Fury had really retired

[aboutfkntime]

I’ll explain why.

Fury he fought nobody for nearly three years.

Wilder has won his title and fought nobody for many years, Ortiz - who hasn’t beaten anyone himself - is the only name on his radar.

Joshua has unified the division against both Klitschko and Parker while no lineal champion has been in the game.

Therefore in my opinion if anyone stakes a claim in that period it is the one who unified twice. But as I also said the real fight is wilder vs Joshua to find out who it is in my opinion.

Fury doesn’t count anymore to me

you missed the point

you cannot argue lineage lol

you can only win lineage..... and neither Wilder nor Joshua have ever done that

Wilder/Joshua will determine lineage if those guys still hold all 4 recognized titles by the time they fight..... until then, Fury is the last guy to be officially recognized as " The Man "..... and he never lost, and he never retired imho.....

anybody who thought Fury had retired was obviously wrong

[aboutfkntime]

Fury is the Champion. Period, end of. Just because he's been inactive doesn't mean he automatically loses his claim. There is precedent. Jack Dempsey sat on the HW title for *3* years and then subsequently lost it to Gene Tunney.

Fury is the Champion until he's beat or retires...

good call !

[famicommander]

you missed the point

you cannot argue lineage lol

you can only win lineage..... and neither Wilder nor Joshua have ever done that

Wilder/Joshua will determine lineage if those guys still hold all 4 recognized titles by the time they fight..... until then, Fury is the last guy to be officially recognized as " The Man "..... and he never lost, and he never retired imho.....

anybody who thought Fury had retired was obviously wrong

People accepted it when Manny Pacquiao retired, and he came back faster than Fury's "fake" retirement.

If you don't think Fury's "retirement" vacated the lineal title, then to be consistent in your logic you must also accept that the welterweight lineage went

Pacquiao-> Horn -> Crawford, making Terence Crawford the current lineal champion.

But nobody in the right mind considered Horn the lineal champion for beating Pacquiao (or rather, being gifted a decision, but that's neither here nor there).