Phil D. Jay
WBN Editor
WBN Editor
Mexican claims WBC lightweight belt
Jorge Linares produced a superb performance and looked on
his way to a third world title at a third weight until cuts on the bridge of
his nose and eye opened up to hamper his world title challenge.
I had the Japan-based Venezuelan up 97-93 going into the
eleventh round as ‘El Nino de Oro’ used his lateral movement to bamboozle
DeMarco, who just wanted to get Linares embroiled into a toe-to-toe battle.
From the sixth round onwards the Tijuana fighter’s tactics
worked and the more the boxer’s traded, the worse off Linares looked and in the
end the referee had no choice but to step in with blood pouring from Linares’
face.
Also on the card at The Staples Center, Danny Garcia
improved to 22-0 with a split decision win over Kendall Holt. The bout was
close for the first five or six rounds, after which, Garcia took control and
Holt hardly landed a telling punch.
The judges’ scorecards read 117-111 (twice) and surprisingly
115-113 to Holt although I can’t see how anyone could have scored the bout for ‘Rated
R’ and I also had it 117-111.
Paulie Malignaggi also scored a win in California as he
hardly gave Orlando Lora a chance to settle down, confusing him with his speed
to take a landslide points win 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92 to move to 30-4.