Groves vs Smith for Ring Title. Agree?

[Alpha]

Ward was the last lineal champion and also The Ring champion.

Since Ward left supermiddle The Ring made DeGale-Jack for the belt but it was a draw.

With Ward/Froch, many rated the undefeated IBF champion Bute ahead of Froch at the time. Putting the legitimacy of the lineal title being on the line in question.

Froch annihated Bute later on should tell us that Bute was a paper champ.

That is besides the point, Bute was considered by many to be #1 or #2 in the division heading into Ward/Froch.

It caused tons of arguments on here as Bute had a big following claiming he was the best supermiddle. Not for me though, Ward-Froch had better form than him so was fine by me, and I believe Froch annihilating Bute was some kind of justification (as Master said).

At the very least it cemented Andre Ward's claim to be no.1 in the division.

Definitely established Ward as top of the division.

Froch had lost to Kessler (no shame in that), who Ward had just beaten. Bute was unbeaten until running into Froch, although he had the scare against Andrade in the first encounter. He blew him away in the rematch.

This was another example where it would have been better to leave the titles (both Ring & Lineal) vacant.