oh **** my 2 faves i would kill to get my hands on that sparring tape but really Linares is nothing like Hatton
In a real fight Id give Jorge a good shot against Pac early. Problem is Linares has a tendency to slow down and Pac wold own him eventually.
linares high workrate and accurate punching without mauling inside work seems an odd preparation for a hold and hit, knees and elbows bangin' fight with hatton. my money is on pacquiao either way, but, you know, it will only do him good in terms of conditioning.
chimba--i agree that linares could get out to an early lead with quick in and out flurries and precision punching from range. linares is pretty good at getting out of the way after he throws, but eh does tend to grind down a bit, because of high high workrate, i think, later in fights. i wonder if he will mature past those energy plateau problems. he is very young, after all. 23 or 24, right? he still has a lot to learn and a lot of time to grow and improve. i expect big things from him. he could easily crack some pound for pound considerations within three years if he doesn't get injured and derailed again and steps up his level of opposition a little more quickly and steadily.
actually, i think in terms of physical proportions it just seems that way because linares has a relatively small head that is more angular. pacquiao has a more circular face and head, which, by boxing and medical wisdom makes one less likely to have the brain rattled against the skull upon impact because it indicates that the skull was less vertically narrowed during the delivery/birth process. that is, incidentally, why people delivered via c-section are much less likely to be concussively injured/ko'd from impact to the face and skull...there is more depth of viscous fluid in between the skull and brain, more padding preventing injury. of course, dehydrating for a weigh in drains that fluid of its ability to absorb impact shocks.
I'm surprised they got Linares. Pacquiao's camp considered Linares a possible opponent in the past, therefore not taking him as a sparring partner in his earlier fights. I guess that's not the case now since Pac's set for retirement. Lol. You're right. His head is almost twice as big as Linares'.