Tag Archives: Jorge Linares
Jorge Linares Gives Lomachenko The Edge vs Teofimo Lopez: “He’s Still The Best”
By: Hans Themistode
Former three division world champion Jorge Linares knows what it feels like to be considered one of the best fighters in the world. But he also knows what it feels like to share the ring with who many consider to be at the top of that list in Vasiliy Lomachenko.
Outside of the lone loss of his career against Orlando Salido, Linares gave Lomachenko everything he could handle back in 2018. Even dropping the unified champion during the mid portion of the contest. Unfortunately for Linares though, after said knockdown, he was out boxed and stopped in the tenth round.
At the moment, it’s safe to say that the Lightweight division is one of the most stacked in all of boxing. With fighters such as Devin Haney, Gervonta Davis and Leo Santa Cruz the deck is stacked against Lomachenko. With that being said however, none of those aforementioned fighters can hold a candle to the unified champion. At least, according to Linares.
“We can see they have a lot of good boxers in lightweight,” said Linares on the Ak and Barak show. “But, you know, I was fighting with Lomachenko. He’s still the best at lightweight. But, you know, he has a big, tough opponent next. It’s Teofimo Lopez, right? So, Teofimo Lopez is a good fighter, too.”
Over the past few years, Lomachenko has found his name on just about everyone’s hit list. But current IBF titlist Teofimo Lopez is the next man up. He earned the biggest fight of his career with a second round highlight reel knockout over former champion Richard Commey.
Whenever Lomachenko has stepped foot inside of a ring, he was viewed as an overwhelming favorite. With two gold medals, world titles in three weight classes and 396 wins with only one defeat in the amateurs and it’s easy to see why. But in the case of Lopez, there are plenty who are giving the 22 year old a shot to pull off the upset.
Linares, though, is incredulous to that statement and the chances of Lopez in that contest.
“I don’t think so,” Linares said. “Lomachenko is different right now. After my fight, Lomachenko changed so much, right? So much, but he’s still the best, for me.”
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Jorge Linares Criticizes Ryan Garcia: “At 21, I Was Crowned World Champion”
By: Hans Themistode
Ryan Garcia seemingly has it all. Tons of money in his bank account, endless knockout highlight reels and most importantly millions upon millions of followers on his social media accounts. That all sounds good and well, but to former multiple division world champion Jorge Linares, it doesn’t exactly excite him.
“[Garcia] is a good prospect but, you never know in boxing, here today and gone tomorrow,” Linares said in an interview conducted by Nick Libonati and filmed by New Fly Films’ Stefan Newman. “But if he wants to fight me, he needs to first get one of these belts. If he truly wants to fight me, first he needs to win a world title.”
Even without a world title, both Linares and Garcia were on track for a July showdown. Those plans were obviously scrapped when COVID-19 decided to run a muck across the entire world. Stopping every sporting event in its track.
At the age of 21, Garcia has accomplished a lot for himself. He currently holds the WBC Silver Lightweight title. He also has a top three ranking in three of the four sanctioning bodies. Number two in both the WBO and WBA and number three in the WBC. Impressive to most, but to Linares he simply rolls his eyes and yawns.
“At 21, I was crowned World Champion in Las Vegas,” notes Linares. “I beat a great World Champion boxer, Oscar Larios and after that I was World Champion 3 more times. Despite some defeats I got up again and again. You achieved a world title at 21? RG?”
A matchup between the two seemed to be all but done before the sports world shutdown. But now, Linares doesn’t seem as interested in a possible showdown. Unless of course, Garcia grabs a world title.
“I’m a four-time world champion in three different weight divisions. He’s the internet champion,” insists Linares. “He’s still a long way from winning one of these. But in the event that he wins one of these belts, now we’re talking. Let’s call our promoter and we can do that fight.”
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Jorge Linares: Some Perspective
By Hans Olson
Too often in sports, fans and observers have little perspective.
In boxing in particular, there is even less.
Over the weekend in Cancun, Mexico, Venezuelan prodigy Jorge Linares was stopped in two rounds by the little known Sergio Thompson. It was Jorge’s 3rd loss in his pro career, and one that mirrored not his recent losing war of attrition to Antonio DeMarco, but rather his shocking 1st round knockout loss to Juan Carlos Salgado in October of 2009.
Thompson (22-2) started fast at the bell, setting the tone to what would be a thrilling first round. Early in the bout, Jorge appeared uncomfortable. Thompson controlled the ring and landed several flush rights, the pawing jab of Linares doing little to deter the forward-charging Mexican. When Linares did start to land his jab—mostly as a counter—its success was fleeting.
Toward the round’s two-minute mark, Jorge was sent reeling to the ropes as Thompson flurried a barrage of power punches. This forced the fight out of Linares, for at this moment he started to let his hands go, punching in beautiful combinations—a defiant stand that would cost him dearly. Engaging in a firefight was certainly against his best interests, although a thundering left hook did stagger Thompson. As the round came to a close, many had the feeling we could either be in for another classic, or Linares would meet an early demise.
We saw the latter.
At 1:16, Thompson looped a bomb of a right hand, jarring Linares, who then entered survival mode. Over the next 20 seconds, Thompson landed array of punches, eventually sending Linares down. As the bleeding Linares stood up, referee Bill Clancy called timeout for an examination of the cut over Jorge’s left eye. After looking at the cut briefly, the doctor pulled out a red card to stop the fight.
Immediately after, online cries from couch-side fans all but read the last rites on the career of Jorge Linares.
“Glass-jaw.”
“Cuts too easily.”
“Will never be as good as advertised.”
“Overrated.”
“Failure.”
“Can’t take a punch.”
Along with the harsh criticism, many writers and know-it-all fans blasted Linares and Golden Boy Promotions for what turned out to be a mistake in taking what was supposed to be a tune-up fight before a big-money rematch with DeMarco in July on Showtime.
It’s a sign of the times when everyone cares more about the potentials than the actuals—for it was not only the potential of a rematch with DeMarco, but the potential of Linares himself, that everyone cared about.
Looking at the fighters and the sport itself for what they, and for what it is…should be a habit more familiarize themselves with.
You’ll often hear the argument that the fighters of today’s era “don’t fight often enough.”
In the next breath, you’ll hear about fighters making “bad business moves,” like the one that Linares and team apparently made in taking the Thompson fight.
Then came more criticism.
This time, it was from Oscar De La Hoya, directed at Linares’ trainer, Freddie Roach…though this criticism may be fair.
After the fight, De La Hoya had taken to his Twitter account.
“Linares needs a new trainer,” tweeted De La Hoya. “He has so much natural ability but has no defense.”
“He needs a new trainer someone that is going to pay attention and teach him defense!”
With Roach’s hectic schedule and commitments to Manny Pacquiao, Julio Chavez Jr., and Amir Khan among others, it isn’t crazy to suggest that Jorge might indeed need more attention paid to him.
Perhaps the Freddie project just isn’t working.
“I will continue boxing, but we have to improve a few things,” said Linares in a report by Boxing Scene’s Jhonny Gonzalez. “I have to speak with Golden Boy Promotions to figure out [my next move].”
It’s likely that Oscar De La Hoya will advise him as his tweeting suggested: He wants Roach out.
“Look at his natural ability if he had defense he would be untouchable,” continued De La Hoya’s Twitter feed.
It’s ironic, because Freddie Roach pieced back together the career of Amir Khan after his shocking knockout loss to Breidis Prescott in 2008. Roach tightened Khan’s defense, guided him with an intelligent move up in weight class, and along with strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, reconstructed Khan’s body from a the top-heavy muscular build to a balanced physique. In the proper weight class with stronger lower body and core strength paired with improved defense, Khan showed astonishing improvement.
It’s curious why Jorge Linares hasn’t had similar success.
Actually, maybe it’s not.
Because he’s not Amir Khan. He’s a different fighter, with different strengths and weaknesses.
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It might not be with Freddie Roach, but Jorge Linares does indeed have the skills to compete at the elite level despite the recent setbacks.
In actuality, he might come back better than ever. It’s times like these when a fighter is often able to put it all together, strengthening the strengths and nullifying weaknesses. This is when they become great. Just ask Wladimir Klitschko.
Linares simply has to acknowledge his defensive liabilities and adjust into a different fighter. Sure, he might not give us the same blood-and-guts wars like we saw against DeMarco, but he’ll be winning fights. And hey, who’s to say having that penchant for mixing it up wouldn’t be a good card to pull out when absolutely needed?
He’ll need to work on creating angles and avoiding right hands. And if he can’t avoid them, he needs to keep his left hand up and forget about rolling with those punches. He’ll likely need to modify his wide-stance, a stance similar in nature to that of Adrien Broner. Where a wider stance creates power, it also leaves fighters less mobile to a certain degree…and Jorge’s upper body movement and defense in the pocket isn’t comparable to that of Broner.
But Linares has many gifts that even fighters like Khan and Broner don’t have. Few in boxing can counter punch as well as Jorge Linares. His blazing speed and combination punching sets him apart from most active fighters. Utilizing those skills with improved defense and a more cautious style are certain to keep him in the 135 discussion for some time.
Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Jorge Linares will continue, and likely with the courage that so many of his critics don’t, and will never have.
Boxing Insider’s Hans Olson can be reached at [email protected] Follow @hansolson
