Jorge Linares did his thing last night on Facebook Watch.
Former three division titleholder Jorge Linares (45-4, 28 KOs) made a strong statement in his junior welterweight debut against former prospect Abner Cotto (23-4, 12 KOs) on Facebook Watch. Granted, the less famous Cotto, second cousin of Puerto Rican legend Miguel Cotto, was a pretty soft touch that Jorge should have looked good against. Both moving come in weight and coming off his crushing body shot loss to pound for pound king Vasyl Lomachenko, the softer matchmaking touch definitely made sense.
The first round was quiet. Linares, indisputably one of the greatest Venezuelan fighters of all time, came forward behind his jab to see what he could find. There weren’t many openings as Cotto retreated cautiously, but he wasn’t trying to force anything either. The fight opened up in the second. Jorge started moving his extremely coordinated hands while Abner started fighting back a bit. Cotto landed a nice right hand in the middle of the round that opened a cut on the paper thin skin of Linares, but it was a massive right hand coming back that decked him hard with about a minute remaining.
Abner looked finished there from the slow, frozen way he went down. He got up though and finished the round on his feet. The same can’t be said for the third. It took about thirty seconds for another crisp right hand to get through. About fifteen seconds later another one hit and Abner was clearly hurt. A third right hand dropped him along the ropes.
Once again Cotto rose, but then a bit of an odd scene broke out. First, the Puerto Rican began to gesture to the ref to indicate a low blow. Jorge took the opportunity to attack, which he should have. It appeared he was finding his way to the finish, but then Cotto clinched. Initially Linares did great work in that clinch. Shortly after, however, the two men were tumbling to the canvas. When they popped up, the ref began counting for Cotto before the commission jumped up to stop the fight. I guess it was being ruled that the collapse in the clinch was a knockdown. On the replay, I don’t have any complaints about that, nor any for the stoppage. It all just came together in an odd way.
Jorge Linares was a heavy favorite here and delivered. Too much cannot be made of one dominant win against a lesser opponent. What can be said is that Jorge Linares looked very comfortable up at 140 lbs. His body looked great, still very much in shape without any sign that he wasn’t big enough for junior welterweight. He’ll be a real handful for anyone at the weight. Post-fight he called out Mikey Garcia, Jose Ramirez, and Vasyl Lomachenko for a rematch.
