Lineal championship For example, George Foreman was considered lineal champion from 1994 until 1997, when Shannon Briggs beat him. After the WBA and IBF stripped him of their titles in 1995, Foreman fought only two, low-ranked opponents before Briggs. The lineal champion is not necessarily the boxer viewed as the best. Cyber Boxing Zone and BoxingScene considered Zsolt Erdei the lineal light-heavyweight champion from his 2004 defeat of Julio César González until 2009, when he vacated his title and moved up to cruiserweight; as he had not fought the highest-ranked opponents in the interim, Cliff Rold conceded, "while the concept of a
Shannon Briggs result went to the judge's scorecards. One judge scored the fight a draw at 114–114, while the other two had the fight scored 116–112 and 117–113 in favor of Briggs, giving him both the majority decision win and the lineal heavyweight title. After Lennox Lewis successfully defended his WBC title in a dominating first-round knockout victory over Andrew Golota, he agreed to defend his title against the winner between Briggs-Foreman in the elimination bout organized by the WBC to determine who would become Lewis' next opponent. Though Foreman's promoters protested the result and Lewis instead turned his attention to a