yeah "lineal" is thought of as the "man who beat the man"

does go back to the original belt holder. not an exact science as sometimes it can go vacant and you could technically say the line ended there. So it can be about who's the recognized "man" of the division but only if had gone vacant. Baldo was actually linear at welter for a little bit which shows its not about who's thought of as the best. And Roy was never lineal even though he was recognized as the best.

here's one sites list of the "lineal" line at light heavyweight:

http://cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/lheavy.htm

here's another example, this time welter (not updated, went from Spinks to Judah to Baldo to Floyd):

http://cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/welter.htm

that was a bunch of bullshit, I just wasted like ten minutes of my life on this S***