Jorge Linares: The Venezuelan Golden Boy The Flawed But Dazzling El Niño Del Oro

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'In order to appreciate what could be the biggest year of Jorge Linares’ professional career – which will begin with a January 27 defense of his RING and WBA lightweight titles against Mercito Gesta – one must go back several years.

Linares’ American debut – a 10th-round stoppage of veteran Oscar Larios for the vacant WBC featherweight title on the Bernard Hopkins-Winky Wright undercard in July 2007 – was so impressive that many diehard fans and boxing insiders, including HBO commentator Jim Lampley, who did the live call for the U.S. pay-per-view broadcast, believed they were witnessing the launch of a future Hall of Famer. However, that fanfare was short-lived. Linares suffered his first loss with a first-round stoppage by Juan Carlos Salgado in October 2009, and when the once-celebrated stylist stumbled again a couple years later, it appeared that he had no future in boxing.

The rapid fall from grace began in October 2011 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Linares was putting on an artistic display against Antonio DeMarco over the first half of their scheduled 12-round bout for the vacant WBC lightweight title. However, as he built a lead into the late rounds, his HBOtelevised performance quickly began to fall apart under the gritty underdog’s pressure. Linares, who was a bloody mess as the fight was waved off by referee Raul Caiz Sr. in Round 11, was ahead on the cards by the scores of 99-91 and 98-92 (twice) when he lost.

A defeat had been snatched from the jaws of victory for the Venezuelan, and with the nature of the ending, Golden Boy Promotions scheduled a rematch for the summer of the following year. In the meantime, Linares would engage in a tune-up bout against the lightly regarded but heavy-handed Sergio Thompson in Mexico. But what was thought to be a way for Linares to regain his confidence and get back in the win column turned into a disaster as he was stopped in two rounds.

It was at that point that the obituaries for Linares’ career were being written by some of the same pundits that predicted that he would one day be a pound-for-pound player. Linares had hit rock bottom. “After that fight I thought about everything, retiring possibly, but I spoke to the president of the WBA (Gilberto Mendoza Sr.), who has since passed away, and he encouraged me to fight and to continue to work hard, because he believed I had all the tools to become a world champion,” Linares told ****** through his manager, Jose De La Cruz.

It’s often said that you learn much more in defeats than victories, and Linares said of these particular losses: “From the DeMarco fight it was really just a matter of experience and knowing that I could’ve done things a little different because I was ahead on all the cards. It was just me not having the experience I do now.” Back then, entering rough waters meant that Linares would sink, but those trials steeled him for the adversity that was to come his way.

“For example,” he explained, “against Kevin Mitchell, I got knocked down and I got up and knocked him out. So, it was just more about experience and learning how to manage a fight when things aren’t going too well.”

The question at the time of the Thompson setback (Linares’ third loss by KO) was whether Golden Boy would release him or not. While Linares had come into the sport with great expectations, he had failed to live up to them and he was coming off consecutive defeats. But Linares had a staunch advocate in matchmaker Robert Diaz, who was instrumental in bringing the Teiken Promotions-developed talent to Golden Boy.

“I was told at the time by the upper management that he was done and we should release him. I fought them off (that notion),” said Diaz. “I said, ‘No, I don’t think so.’ I’m so proud of what he’s done and what we’ve done together and where he’s at today. It shows that a couple of losses is not the end of a career. I really see him as an example.”

Diaz began the process of rebuilding Linares from ground zero. At that point – in conjunction with the Tokyo-based Teiken (which co-promotes Linares) – bouts against the likes of Hector Velasquez, David Rodela, Berman Sanchez, Francisco Contreras, Nihito Arakawa and Ira Terry were booked.

“It’s a process,” Diaz explained about the solid-but-non-threatening opposition. “Obviously, when he lost to DeMarco and ‘Yayo’ (Thompson), for the next few fights he was very unsure of himself. You could see it in the ring. But fight after fight after fight, you could see the confidence coming back.

“The skills have always been there. Linares has always been a skillful fighter with a lot of speed and a lot of talent. It was just going back to the basics, and I think a lot of it had to do with him touching rock bottom and learning where he’s at and not wanting to go back to that rock bottom.”

It was a slow and steady process. Linares recalls the exact moment he was back.

“December 30, 2014, when I became a world champion again,” he says of his fourth-round stoppage of Javier Prieto in Japan for the vacant WBC 135-pound belt. “I knew that I was back, but not quite, because I still hadn’t showed that when I was down I could get back up and win (as he would against Mitchell in his first defense). But it was at that point I knew everything had changed as a fighter. I felt complete.” Since that point, Linares has stopped Mitchell (TKO 10) and Ivan Cano (TKO 4), then scored a pair of decisions over Anthony Crolla (for THE RING and WBA belts) in the U.K. before defeating difficult Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell last September. The 32-year-old veteran has clearly established himself as one of the premier lightweights in the world and one of the elite stylists in the sport. Now he wants to go big-game hunting and is searching for legacy-building fights. And there was talk at the end of 2017 of a showdown with Mikey Garcia (who held the WBC title that Linares vacated at the time).

“We talked with our matchmaker and Oscar (De La Hoya) and everyone, and we believed that we gave a fair offer to Mikey and we felt that it was getting there,” De La Cruz told *******. “We felt that it was just a matter of him agreeing to the weight and everything, and then he changed his mind.” Garcia decided to face IBF junior welterweight beltholder Sergey Lipinets on February 10 in San Antonio, Texas. But he has stated that after this fight he would be willing to move back down to face Linares.

“Hopefully, he does (want the fight),” Linares said. “When we see it – a signed agreement – then we’ll believe it. But the reality is that we might go up to 140 and fight him. Then what’s going to be his excuse?” The reality is that this matchup would still have to clear some major political hurdles in order to happen. But for curiosity’s sake, how does Linares envision a fight with Garcia playing out?

“Mikey’s a strong fighter. He comes forward and he wants fighters to come forward so he can counterpunch,” Linares said. “But I don’t believe he’s faced a fighter like me. I’m fast, I have lateral movement, I have a lot more speed and I’m not just going to sit there for him to punch me. I believe it will be an interesting fight, a good fight and if it happens it will be great for the sport.”

The other intriguing challenge on the horizon is WBO 130-pound titleholder and THE RING’s 2017 Fighter of the Year, Vasyl Lomachenko, the slashing Ukrainian southpaw who is boxing’s Mikhail Baryshnikov. A Linares-Lomachenko fight would be a battle of two of the sport’s most elegant fighters.

“Lomachenko is a great fighter with a lot of speed, a lot of lateral movement, but he doesn’t have the reach that I have, he doesn’t have the punch that I have,” Linares said of that particular dream match. “We have more than just experience.”

And part of the “experience” that Linares speaks of is having to come back from devastating losses. “We’ve been there – and I don’t believe he’s been (there) in the past. “Also, my lateral movement with my speed will give him problems. I’m not just going to sit there and wait for him to throw a hundred punches and not get hit back.” Linares is aware of the promotional and network partnerships that could obstruct these dream matchups, but he remains hopeful, perhaps realizing that he’s reaching the tail end of his athletic prime.

“I hope both of these fights, Garcia and Lomachenko, happen,” Linares said. “It’s good for the sport. At this stage of my career I only want the best, and for those two guys to fight me will be the best options.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of upcoming young fighters also. If we move up to 140, there will be a lot more opportunities, but for now these are the two guys that are doing a lot of talking. And we are ready for anyone.”

Fifteen years into the pro game (with 46 fights under his belt), Linares believes he has finally arrived. “I definitely feel that I’m in my best moment and time as a fighter,” he said. “The best is yet to come.”

 

Bad blood between Jorge and Freddie

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