Comments Thread For: Tyson Fury: I'm Lineal Champ - My Status Goes Back a 100 Years

[tonysoprano]

This is like Buster Douglas retiring after beating Tyson, dropping all the belts. then coming back to fight a bunch of bums and proclaiming himself 'lineal champ'.

Nobody should respect this drug cheating fraud until he faces AJ who is the 1 true HW champ.

[vitali1999]

No there hasn't been a lineal champ since Marciano. He retired with the title as Vitali and Lewis did. But even they were not lineal because nobody ever won it from Rocko Marcagano

[vitali1999]

This is like Buster Douglas retiring after beating Tyson, dropping all the belts. then coming back to fight a bunch of bums and proclaiming himself 'lineal champ'.

Nobody should respect this drug cheating fraud until he faces AJ who is the 1 true HW champ.

Buster Douglas was busted by a right cross by Holyfield. Then he retired.

[Biolink]

He's a drug cheat so his claim is flimsy at best

[TexasCowBoy]

This subject is great news for me & right up my street. I'm a bit bored today so this gives me something to carp on about & either educate some or bore the hell of others. If we start with the gloved era then of course we start with John L.Sullivan followed by James J.Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons & Jame J.Jeffries & this where the complication starts. For some unknown reason jeffries retires & takes it upon himself to nominate Tommy Burns & Marvin Hart to fight for the vacant title. Burns wins & defends Worldwide until he comes a cropper against Jack Johnson in Australia (real World champions travel & defended abroad back in the day) As we all know Johnson defended against Jeffries (lineage restored) & went on to lose to Jess Willard & was then out gun by Jack Dempsey, who in turn lost to Gene Tunney. Tunney then retires busts the whole lineage bridge apart. Tyson Fury's claim now becomes unclear. Max Schmeling beats Jack Sharkey for the vacant title but is beaten in the return. Schmelling, Primo Carnera, Max Bear & James J.Braddock jockey for position until Joe Louis comes along. (remember lineage was lost when Tunney retired so we start yet again) Louis reigns as #1 for many years until retirement. Jersey Joe Walcott & Ezzard Charles swop the title until Rocky Marciano comes along. (Marciano had already bested former champ Joe Louis, so second lineage restored. Rocky then retires undefeated & Floyd Patterson picks up the laurel. Then we get Johanneson, Listern & Clay before more political B/S creeps in. Enter the 70's & the WBA & WBC are bickering like a pair of old maids, until Larry Holmes sorts a few things out (Stick with it people even I'm getting tired now). Anyway enter the IBF & more confusion occurs. To cut a very long story short Mike Tyson then turns up & unifie's all 3 belts, but it doesn't end there as along comes yet another upstart, namely the WBO to confuse matter more.
Lennox Lewis was in my mind the last undisputed H/W champion of the World, but it's open to debate as to whether there's a genuine lineage champ or not. Personally I'm bored with the hyperthetical subject & intend to pour a large glass of Glenfarclas single malt!!...

Great Read......better than these dumbass writers on boxing scene.....personality Klitschko was the Last Undisputed Heavyweight Champion and now it seems like AJ is on the saddle.....nobody wants a part of AJ.....time will tell.

[LacedUp]

The actual lineal heavyweight title lineage has been broken several times. And most of the recent “lineal champs” have basically become recognized as the lineal champ because they were seen as the clear cut top guy in the division. And not because they beat the man that beat the man.

LL started being recognized as “lineal champ” after he beat Holyfield and unified all the belts. The WBO belt wasn’t really required back then to reach undisputed status. But the previous lineal title lineage had been broken when George Foreman retired as lineal champ.

Very similar to the way LL retired as lineal champ and halted that title lineage. Personally, I felt that Vitali had a better claim to starting a new title lineage than Wladimir while he was active. But once Vitali retired, Wladimir clearly established himself as the top guy in the division. And in the minds of most started a new title lineage of his own.

And as we know, Fury was the man that beat the man. So of every heavyweight out there, he probably has the best claim to being “lineal champ.” But obviously his inactivity very much weakened that claim.

Actually this is not correct.

Lewis beat Briggs for the lineal title, who had beaten Foreman, who beat Moorer, who beat Holyfield, who beat Douglas, who beat Tyson, who beat Spinks, who beat Holmes, who beat Ali etc.

Lennox Lewis' lineage was legit.

[Toffee]

Jeez we've been through this how many times?

Lineal only works in hindsight. Very rarely in history has it been clear cut.

People retired and a new doubtful lineage was created. But time and time again they come back and get beaten which restores the lineage in hindsight.

Where we have had exceptions and lineal champs have stayed retired, the whole situation is doubtful until a clear top two fight.

Right now it's doubtful. We can accept Klit held it (though exactly when he 'won' it is less clear. We can accept Fury won it. Whether he can retire and come back with it is completely doubtful. He does have a stronger claim than anyone else.

Who held the title before the first Ali-Frazier fight? Ali was an unbeaten former champ; most believe Frazier was the lineal champ though.

But hindsight will sort this out. The top few fighters will box each other and all possible roads will lead back to one man, regardless of exactly when it was won. Just as it did with Frazier in 1971.

History hasn't been that certain. The present certainly isn't. Which is why it's nonsense to claim it as a title.

[Curtis Harper]

Fury is so insecure

He thinks the more he talks rubbish, the more people will care.

[Buggy bear]

do you not think if he were a champion , superstar, brand , good looking and as a man successful... he'd be talking this desperate, embarrassing and irrelevant **** ?

[Oshio]

Does he need to to keep reminding us of who he is? I have never heard Joshua who has four belts remind us of what he has. Only Fury and Wilder, two ducks do that