xxxx during a press conference ahead of the world heavyweight title rematch between Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko at the Landmark London Hotel on September 12, 2016 in London, England.

On Friday, in the lead-up to tonight’s Mayweather-McGregor match, I read a Deadspin piece titled “Conor McGregor Is Somehow Defending The Lineal WWE Brawl For All Title.” The Brawl For All tournament, a legit boxing tournament WWE did in 1998 in which Bart Gunn won, was somehow being defended by a UFC powerhouse about to fight Floyd Mayweather.

Immediately, I knew this was inaccurate, because I had thought of this exact story a couple months ago and, after doing research, learned that Conor McGregor is not the holder of the mythological Brawl for All title. Deadspin’s piece is inaccurate, and I can prove it.

I got the idea to write about the lineal Brawl For All title after randomly coming across this YouTube video.

Seeing such names as Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor in this lineage of champs, it’s obviously great content and a way to give a unique angle to a Mayweather-McGregor fight in which all angles seemingly have all been covered over the past six months.

Just like in the Deadspin piece, this video shows that after defeating Bart Gunn at WrestleMania XV on March 28, 1999, Butterbean lost to Japanese fighter Genki Sudo in Butterbean’s MMA debut on December 31, 2003, and thus Sudo became the holder of the Brawl For All title. That is important because that crosses the lineage over to the MMA world and is why someone like McGregor would be defending that title tonight.

Unfortunately, Butterbean lost two boxing matches in between his WrestleMania contest with Bart Gunn and his MMA debut with Genki Sudo. Interestingly, Larry Holmes defeated Butterbean by unanimous decision on July 27, 2002, but the match that caused the Brawl For All title to metaphorically change hands happened on August 19, 2001, when Billy Zumbrun defeated Butterbean in a mixed decision.

This is crucial because this means the title stayed in boxing and never to MMA. And this has a rather notable lineage of its own. I stopped tracking the lineage after 2006 because I figured it wouldn’t lead me to the Mayweather-McGregor fight, but it would have led me to Wladimir Klitschko and Tyson Fury. So while I was wrong in assuming the lineage ended 10 years ago, as I tweeted yesterday, the Deadspin piece inspired me to re-check and do more research to actually find the true Brawl For All holder.

Zumbrun won three more times before losing to Patrice L’Heureux on October 13, 2002. L’Heureux held the title for over two years before being TKO’ed by Steve Pannell on February 26, 2005. Pannell lost his next fight six months later to Jameel McCline by knockout on August 26, 2005. McCline lost his next fight against Zuri Lawrence via unanimous decision on October 21, 2005. Like McCline, Lawrence would lose his next bout. He was knocked out by Calvin Brock on February 25, 2006.

After holding the Brawl For All title for about nine months, Brock went against Wladimir Klitschko at Madison Square Garden on November 11, 2006. In a TKO in the seventh round, Klitschko defeated Brock for the Brawl For All title.

Klitschko would have the longest title reign, holding the metaphorical title as well as eventually combine the IBF, WBO and IBO Heavyweight championships as well as the lineal champion over the the next nine years. But all good things must come to an end and when Tyson Fury defeated Klitschko on November 28, 2015, Fury became the Brawl For All champion. That is where we sit for now.

That was Fury’s last fight, due to a failed drug test that prevented a Fury-Klitschko rematch. With his other titles vacated, you could argue that Fury’s Brawl For All title should be vacated too, but it’s not like you could just appoint a match being for something that isn’t actually real. You could argue that Klitschko should get it back, which would thus result in Anthony Joshua currently having the Brawl For All title, but that will have to be a debate for another time. Hopefully, Fury someday comes back and then the Brawl For All someday comes back to life.

So all in all, there have been ten people to have held the once-real, but now fictional, Brawl For All title. For something that started in WWE and wound up being a complete and admitted disaster for all involved at that time, the Brawl For All title lineage has had an interesting run. It would have been more interesting if it had gone into the MMA world on New Year’s Eve 2003 and eventually get to tonight’s fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, but it did get to one of the greats in boxing, and maybe it can someday get back to the boxing (or maybe MMA) world.

The Brawl For All lineage

Bart Gunn (August 24, 1998 – March 28, 1999)

Eric “Butterbean” Esch (March 28, 1999 – August 19, 2001)

Billy Zumbrun (August 19, 2001 – October 13, 2002)

Patrice L’Heureux (October 13, 2002 – February 26, 2005)

Steve Pannell (February 26, 2005 – August 26, 2005)

Jameel McCline (August 26, 2005 – October 21, 2005)

Zuri Lawrence (October 21, 2005 – February 25, 2006)

Calvin Brock (February 25, 2006 – November 11, 2006)

Wladimir Klitschko (November 11, 2006 – November 28, 2015) *unites with IBF, WBO, IBO Heavyweight Championship and becomes lineal champion during this run

Tyson Fury (November 28, 2015 – Current) *unites with IBF, WBO, IBO Heavyweight Championship, WBA Super Heavyweight Championship and becomes lineal champion during this run (since vacated)

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @phillipbupp

1 thought on “No, Conor McGregor is not defending the WWE Brawl For All title. Its true lineage flows through Wladimir Klitschko

  1. Wrong. The bouts were closer to MMA than boxing. The B4A wasn’t held under Queensbury Rules and can’t be defended as such.

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