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Ringside Report Proposes Five Bouts to Test the WBA Lightweight Champion Jorge Linares

img_JorgeLinaresBy Jeffrey “Italian Medallion” Cellini

On September 24, 2016, Jorge Linares,41-3, 27 KO’s won and retained the WBA and the Ring Magazine Lightweight World Championships with a unanimous decision over Anthony Crolla at the Manchester Arena in the United Kingdom. Linares added his name to the growing list of three-division world champions (with the benefit of so many alphabet organizations nowadays) by knocking out Javier Prieto in the fourth round to claim the vacant WBC World Lightweight title. On his first attempt to win the WBC Lightweight belt, “El Niño de Oro” lost by technical knockout to Antonio DeMarco, on October 15, 2011, in the eleventh round of a fight that he was ahead in on the judges’ scorecards.

Linares is a three-weight world champion, having also held the WBC featherweight title from 2007 to 2008 and the WBA super featherweight title from 2008 to 2009. The Venezuelan won the vacant WBC World Featherweight title against Oscar Larios, a former WBC Super Bantamweight and Featherweight champion, by technical knockout in the tenth round on July 21, 2007. In the following year, Linares picked up another vacant title by defeating Whyber Garcia on November 28th, via fifth round technical knockout for the WBA Super Featherweight title.
Jorge Linares is a world-class fighter who has decent punching power; however, he has been stopped in his three losses. Is “El Niño de Oro” a future Hall-of-Famer, or is he just another vulnerable champion who has benefitted from today’s boxing world of multiple world organizations and titles? Here is a list of five potential opponents who can answer that question for boxing fans.

5) Robert Easter JR, 18-0, 14 KO’s is the current IBF World Lightweight champion. Perhaps the most flawed of all the lightweight champions, the 5-foot-11 newly-crowned king is a slick boxer who can go toe-to-toe when necessary. Easter won his title by split-decision over Richard Commey on September 9th in Reading, Pennsylvania.

4) Dejan “Dynamite” Zlaticanin, 22-0, 15 KO’s is the current WBC World Lightweight champion. The power-punching Montenegrin southpaw won the vacant world title against Franklin Mamani by third-round technical knockout on June 11th of this year in Verona, New York.

3) Terry “Turbo” Flanagan, 31-0, 12 KO’s is the current WBO World Lightweight. The fast-and-elusive, counterpunching Brit is another southpaw that can be added to the list. Flanagan, also the former WBO European Lightweight champion, defeated then-unbeaten American Jose Zepeda by second-round technical knockout. Zepeda retired on his stool after the second-round when it appeared that he had sustained a bad dislocation to his shoulder due to clash of arms and was unable to continue.

2) Francisco Vargas, 23-0-2, 17 KO’s is the current WBC World Super Featherweight champion. The power-punching Mexican can throw devastating combinations, using both hands to crush his opponents. On November 21, 2015, “El Bandido” defeated Takashi Miura for the title with a ninth-round technical knockout. Vargas is the top-ranked super featherweight in the world for a reason.

1) Vasyl Lomachenko, 6-1, 4 KO’s is already a two-division world champion. He is the current WBO Junior Lightweight champion, who is considered one of the ten best fighters in the world today. He has also held the WBO World Featherweight title from 2014 to 2016. He is set to defend his newly-won crown against either Nicholas Walters or Guillermo Rigondeaux next month. Lomachenko is a highly-skilled fighter who will challenge anyone, and seems primed to keep moving in weight classes to build his legacy.

Jorge Linares has built himself a nice resume with multiple world titles, but he lacks that one career-defining victory. Perhaps he needs to throw caution to the wind, and pick some of these world class champions to fight. A victory over anyone of them very well may put the Hall-of-Fame stamp on his career.

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