Quote Originally Posted by generalbulldog View Post
With such a talented fighter such as Jones it is mind boggling that he was never a lineal champ! Kind of reminds me of Donaire, an extremely gifted fighter that has yet been a lineal champ.

And most boxing fans and historians just go with the lineal title anyways. I mean when John Ruiz gets to claim he was a HW champ like Ali and Louis, then you know the alphabet titles don't mean shit.
Jones was the P4P champion for most of his career from SMW until he came back down from HW...There was little dispute on who he would or could beat...The titles during that time were nothing more then decorations....same for Floyd and now Manny...they sat on top of everyone period! the titles at that level eventually become nothing more then belts you can't keep your pants up with.....It is boxing politics and the need for the sanctioning bodies along with promoters to keep making money and having the rating system turn that guys at the stages those fighters reached don't really put that much attention on titles.....I mean in truth how many champions over the last decade have held the IBO title and ring title?.....WTF is the IBO? Until recently lets say the last 2 years it was virtually unknown by the fans....but tell Wlad, Lennox, Darchinyan, Dawson, Tarver, Jones etc the belt was not just as important...because they made money defending the IBO not the ring title......Titles today are nothing more then marketing tools wins are what decides things