How good is Jorge Linares?

Boxingnews24.com

By Gav Duthie: Jorge Linares is somewhat of an enigma, Venezuelan born, residing in Tokyo Japan and making a big name for himself in England in the last couple of years defeating two of their best lightweight talents in Kevin Mitchell and Anthony Crolla. His talent is also enigmatic. He arguably has the fastest hands in boxing, top 5 for sure, he is a 3-weight world champion but he has lost some strange fights in his career but he seems to have improved a lot. Just how good is he and what can he achieve?

El Nino De Oro

Jorge ‘El Niro De Oro’ or the Golden Boy Linares is named after his mentor Oscar De La Hoya. Oscar was by his side against Anthony Crolla last night and Linares has been compared to Oscar from a very young age. He lived up to his name when he won his first world title at featherweight aged just 21 when he stopped the great Oscar Larios in 10 rounds. His hand speed mirrored De La Hoya and he looked invincible. This façade was destroyed however in 2009 when he was knocked out by Juan Carlos Salgado in just 1 round. He also lost back to back fights in 2011 and 2012 to B level fighters Antonio De Marco (round 11 whilst miles up on all cards) and Sergio Thompson in just two rounds. At this point you could compare him more aptly to Amir Khan than Oscar De La Hoya. A man with great hand speed and talent but without the chin to compete at the very top. Also like Amir it seemed he had too much too soon by having so much success at an early age.

The Boy becomes the man

Linares has grown up since then. He won his 3rd weight world title defeating Javier Prieto in 2014. Linares was fortunate that Omar Figueroa had vacated the title through injury but he performed very well regardless. His win over Kevin Mitchell showed he had great heart and determination and his two wins over Crolla conveyed that he now possesses more composure and a boxing brain than just relying on blind speed like he did in his youth. I thought the rematch was a strange move by Eddie Hearn. Crolla did brilliantly the first time and is a great fighter but Linares is simply better. His speed accuracy and movement were a joy to watch and he can take some shots also. He now needs to look at his legacy fights and whether that will be achieved through a superfight at lightweight or winning a 4th weight world title. I think he is good enough to do both.

Future opponents for Linares

Mikey Garcia 36-0 (30)

Linares has called Mikey out for a unification bout. He respects Garcia but wants to take his undefeated record. There have been a few unification bouts this year so if the WBC and WBA can get together this is possible. Both are elite level fighters and some have Garcia as even a top 10 P4P fighter but Linares has a chance.

Vasyl Lomachenko 7-1 (5)

Lomachenko is currently looking to unify Super featherweight but this guy doesn’t hang about. He has already stated that he plans to move up. He is not looking past Jason Sosa and he has lots of options but this is a possibility. I think if Loma could choose his next opponent though it would be to rematch Orlando Salido. Lomachenko’s footwork is what confuses opponents but Linares is a good mover also and probably faster.

Ricky Burns 41-5-1 (14)

If Linares wants a fourth weight world title Burns might be the man to target. Jorge is obviously comfortable fighting in the UK and dealing with Eddie Hearn. This would make much more sense than targeting Terrence Crawford who is much bigger. The problem here though is Ricky could lose his title next month to Julius Indongo but he could also gain 2. If Ricky wins i’m sure he would love to see how Linares fairs in Scotland.