Can you call a boxer who never defended his belts a champion?

[Granath]

I was told you have to defend your belts to become a champion. But there’s a Gypsy Queen/bum out there who supposedly won 3 belts but has never been in a title defence bout.

In all honesty, people need to stop calling Fury a former champion. He won those belts by taking PED and never defended the belts before he was stripped and banned. The Gypsy bum is a bum beater and not a former champion.

^^^
This

All of the Fury fans want to just gloss over the fact that he tested for PEDs (Nandrolone, an anabolic steroid) in the run up to the Wlad fight and then tested positive for benzoylecgonine (coke) after the fight. That's a two-time loser.

He was stripped of his titles. The only reason why the result itself wasn't vacated was that would cause mass confusion. When the steroid test was finally announced (no one seems to know why it took so long - guess the UKADA was trying to protect a Brit fighter), AJ had already won the belts and Wlad was set to fight for them. If they vacated the result, it would have thrown the true champion into chaos, which would have caused an entire renegotiation of the purse and many other things. It probably would have scrubbed the Wlad / AJ fight entirely. Since this would have been a black eye for the sport and especially UKADA and since Wlad and AJ were fighting it out for the titles they let the result stand.

Note that Fury did not participate in VADA prior to the 1st Klitschko fight and the UKADA swept the steroid test under the rug for a long time trying to protect Fury. Then he postponed the rematch against Klitschko one time and then was caught on coke, killing the fight entirely.

When he doesn't test positive and wins a title fight then he can be called champion. Until then he's not any kind of champion, including the lineal champion. He's simply another cheat.

[champion4ever]

Didn’t Fury pass his VADA tests in beating Klitchko? If he did, he beat Wlad fair and square so you can’t dismiss Lineal. If it didn’t matter, Showtime wouldn’t have made a mockery of themselves selling the Wilder vs Fury fight of Undefeated and Lineal. Ideally Showtime is a Premiere boxing network...

No, Wladimir Klitschko pushed for VADA random drug testing after it had been confirmed back in 2016, that Fury had popped dirty for doping and substance abuse just prior to their first bout in 2015 against Christian Hammer. There was no type of random or VADA drug testing protocol then and it wasn't one for the first Klitschko bout either.

So chances are Fury could have been doping then but it had gone undetected because he wasn't tested for it. Just like he wasn't randomly tested Saturday night against Schwarz for Doping and PED use either. Which makes both wins in my opinion very suspect.

[Sun_Tzu]

Id like someone to explain to me how Fury is the lineal champion? How was Wlad the lineal champion? Wlad never held the WBC belt in large part because his brother had it locked down. Is it the consensus that Lennox Lewis was the lineal champion? If so how do we bridge the gap between Lewis and Wlad? They never fought, so how could there be a lineal HW champion if the last lineal champion never lost the title. Wlad never beat the man who beat the man. This whole lineal thing is bogus as hell and people are falling for it. I would agree Fury never lost his title in the ring but his title is definitely not the lineal HW champion. I dont think most people understand what it means.

[Outwest Exp 355]

They sold it because they thought Wilder was going to beat a shot fighter. Bet they're regretting now ESPN has Fury and he schooled Wilder.

Nothing wrong with selling it. What’s wrong is he’s fighting bums like Tom Schwarz.

[BangEM]

^^^
This

All of the Fury fans want to just gloss over the fact that he tested for PEDs (Nandrolone, an anabolic steroid) in the run up to the Wlad fight and then tested positive for benzoylecgonine (coke) after the fight. That's a two-time loser.

He was stripped of his titles. The only reason why the result itself wasn't vacated was that would cause mass confusion. When the steroid test was finally announced (no one seems to know why it took so long - guess the UKADA was trying to protect a Brit fighter), AJ had already won the belts and Wlad was set to fight for them. If they vacated the result, it would have thrown the true champion into chaos, which would have caused an entire renegotiation of the purse and many other things. It probably would have scrubbed the Wlad / AJ fight entirely. Since this would have been a black eye for the sport and especially UKADA and since Wlad and AJ were fighting it out for the titles they let the result stand.

Note that Fury did not participate in VADA prior to the 1st Klitschko fight and the UKADA swept the steroid test under the rug for a long time trying to protect Fury. Then he postponed the rematch against Klitschko one time and then was caught on coke, killing the fight entirely.

When he doesn't test positive and wins a title fight then he can be called champion. Until then he's not any kind of champion, including the lineal champion. He's simply another cheat.

Great post.

I think UKAD protected him a bit because Fury has always played the victim card and claim the UK doesn't appreciate him. And he was also going to drag UKAD into a law suit that's bigger than UKAD's budget.

[Thuglife Nelo]

No, Wladimir Klitschko pushed for VADA random drug testing after it had been confirmed back in 2016, that Fury had popped dirty for doping and substance abuse just prior to their first bout in 2015 against Christian Hammer. There was no type of random or VADA drug testing protocol then and it wasn't one for the first Klitschko bout either.

So chances are Fury could have been doping then but it had gone undetected because he wasn't tested for it. Just like he wasn't randomly tested Saturday night against Schwarz for Doping and PED use either. Which makes both wins in my opinion very suspect.

I don’t recall any reports of Fury failing a test for the Klitchko fight. If it was before or after the Wlad fight and VADa knew about that lol then the problem is with VADA.

Fury got into drama because the Klitchko and Loeffler are Jewish and money talks (regarding Fury’s “antisemitic remarks.”

[Curtis Harper]

Anytime a guy beats a champ, well............

If we're talking legacy, you have to have multiple defenses or suffer the fate of a fluke.

[Toffee]

If you are inactive, retire, or get banned for drugs then you lose your title.

Fury did all of the above.

That's my opinion on the "lineal rules". Cue a bunch of people telling me the "real rules" that they made up.

[champion4ever]

I don’t recall any reports of Fury failing a test for the Klitchko fight. If it was before or after the Wlad fight and VADa knew about that lol then the problem is with VADA.

Fury got into drama because the Klitchko and Loeffler are Jewish and money talks (regarding Fury’s “antisemitic remarks.”

It was because he never signed up for any random VADA drug testing for the Wladimir Klitschko in the first place. Their first fight convened in Germany where there was no type of random drug testing protocol.

Fury got busted by UKAD following his fight with Christian Hammer just prior to the Klitschko fight. However, those results were not disclosed until after the Klitschko fight was over.

The Hammer fight was held in England at the 02 arena in Feb 2015. So UKAD had jurisdiction over the random drug testing protocol but in Germany they did not because both parties agreed to not have any type of random drug testing protocol at the time.

Lastly, I agree. I believe that the BBBoC and UKAD made a political decision to out Fury as a drug cheat because of his Anti-Semitic comments about Jews. There's no telling how many other drug tests he failed but the corrupt UKAD just looked the other way.

The BBBoC and UKAD had known for several years that the Fury was a juicer and drug cheat but just simply decided to look the other way by covering it up.

However, the moment that Tyson Fury started making Anti-Semitic comments about Jews; That's when the BBoC came under pressure and decided to out Tyson Fury has a doper and substance abuser by suspending him.

[Thuglife Nelo]

It was because he never signed up for any random VADA drug testing for the Wladimir Klitschko in the first place. Their first fight convened in Germany where there was no type of random drug testing protocol.

Fury got busted by UKAD following his fight with Christian Hammer just prior to the Klitschko fight. However, those results were not disclosed until after the Klitschko fight was over.

The Hammer fight was held in England at the 02 arena in Feb 2015. So UKAD had jurisdiction over the random drug testing protocol but in Germany they did not because both parties agreed to not have any type of random drug testing protocol at the time.

Lastly, I agree. I believe that the BBBoC and UKAD made a political decision to out Fury as a drug cheat because of his Anti-Semitic comments about Jews. There's no telling how many other drug tests he failed but the corrupt UKAD just looked the other way.

The BBBoC and UKAD had known for several years that the Fury was a juicer and drug cheat but just simply decided to look the other way by covering it up.

However, the moment that Tyson Fury started making Anti-Semitic comments about Jews; That's when the BBoC came under pressure and decided to out Tyson Fury has a doper and substance abuser by suspending him.

If Fury didn’t do VADA for Wlad then it means Wlad didn’t as well. Which means team Wlad didn’t care nor could do anything about their first fight