The Lineal Heavyweight Champ

So we both agree ratings and rankings are subjective with no clear authority and lineal is virtually impossible to maintain in this day and age. :D

The other confusion with lineal is it means the best in the division, which is not the case, it simply gives us a standalone champion. A prime example is old man Foreman chinning Moorer when Holyfield, Bowe, Lewis and Tyson, amongst others, were in the same era. Foreman was struggling around with Schulz and Savarese whilst the others were beating each other senseless for alphabets and huge wonga.

Canelo is currently lineal middleweight but Golovkin is clearly the no.1 in the division and Jacobs and Saunders could/should rank higher than Canelo.

You would have loved this forum back in the day, @Alpha, we had lots of super historian hardcore/nerds (and boxrec experts).

Fully agree with many confusing lineal as being the best, another example I like to use is Floyd Patterson/Sonny Liston. Patterson was the champion but was criticised for not fighting true contenders, Liston was dominating opponents, D'Amato didn't want Floyd to fight Liston, his ties to organised crime was also used as an excuse. There are many other examples as well throughout history.

Cheers to you Fenster, it has actually felt like a true forum the last few days, with some quality debate.