I can tell you guys this based on what I just seen, Linares was out after the first knock down, despite getting up he wasn't ready to continue fighting. He was also still in a daze once the ref signaled for them to keep fighting. That shot that knocked him down the first time was on the temple and not on the chin, so the chin factor is thrown out the window - he (linares) was just hit with a good shot ... nothing to do with anything that his opponent did or anything that was wrong with him ... anyone would've went down from that punch. I can tell you guys this, I would love to see that rematch because that was the making of a good chess match, both guys were sizing each other up from a tacticle stand point and both were using good movement at the time ... For those haters ... It doesn't take much to see if it was the making of a good fight and if those guys have the goods. I'll bet anyone of you guys that if this fight was to be a rematch that Linares would look great against this guy and win a tough fought decision ...
Linares is solid ... and no fighter, I mean no fighter no matter what kinda chin they got could've recovered from that shot ... it wasn't on the chin, it was right on his temple and he couldn't have recovered from that.
So what would stop anybody else from hitting him on his temple like Salgado did to knock him out, again? The term chinny doesn't just mean weak punch resistance from getting hit on the chin. It's getting hit on the part of the boxer from the neck up, legal areas of course. Salgado hit him on the temple, borderline call but who'd stop a fight in the middle of a knockdown like that to see if it's a temple shot?
Oh please. There is no way to determine such a thing. What you can see is that Linares got annihilated by a shot that didn't even look like it hit that cleanly. Bottom line, there was ONE fighter who got hit with that punch, and he was DONE. That sure makes his chin look pretty damn shaky to me. In fact, it's almost Khan level!
"Chin" in the common boxing vernacular doesn't strictly refer to the actual anatomical chin. It's basically punch-resistance (excluding body punches) - anything that lands upstairs is going to affect you dependent on your "chin", the power, torque, and accuracy of the punch, and about a thousand other minute little variables. I'll withhold ultimate judgment on Linares ability to take a punch and whether this is truly one that would fell anybody at the weight until I review the fight, but saying that he has a good chin because the punch landed on his temple and not his actual chin is missing the point of how the term is used.
I think that a majority of you guys are hating because of the hype but i'm not going to let this one go because I think Linares is good enough to make a huge mark on the boxing world. He's still young and an experienced fighter on the championship level ... there are many fighters who have never reached that level in longer careers. To the guy who said he didn't get hit with a hard shot ... how the hell do you know that? ... are you Linares? ... have you ever been in a fight before? ... It doesn't have to be a hard shot or on the chin ... the right spot can knock anyone out ... and I'm not going to discredit his opponent who was undefeated ...
Temple shots are difficult to recover from much like liver shots so the jury is still out on Linares. He certainly doesn't have a granite chin but does not make him glass chinned just yet because he has taken plenty of good shots else where on the head and never looked wobbled or badly hurt before. He's not like Khan a guy getting dropped by featherfisted opponents so the two are not comparable. Light hitting Corley almost KOed Cotto a guy 17lbs heavier with a temple shot and it took Cotto the whole round in survival mode to recover. Margarito got wobbled by Santos with a good temple shot and dropped by Perez. Your equilibrium is destroyed with a solid temple shot so it's not easy to recover from against an aggressive finisher and that early in the round.