MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN
Jorge Linares has all the advantages over Vasyl Lomachenko. Except one. He’s not Vasyl Lomachenko. Oliver Goldstein explains
Dazzling duo Jorge Linares and Vasyl Lomachenko prepare for battle
FRESH off his most recent exhibition in the arts of humiliation, boxing’s most exquisite torture artist returns to New York’s Madison Square Garden on Saturday night when Vasyl Lomachenko goes for a third world title in just his 12th professional fight against Jorge Linares. Lomachenko, Oxnard, California, by way of Bilhorod-dnistrovskyi, Ukraine, fights like a whirling dervish, and rips through divisions like one too. Having shamed most of the elite super-featherweight fighters out of town, Lomachenko will look to embarrass his way through the lightweight division next.
Linares, Tokyo, Japan, via Barinas, Venezuela, is a serious opponent, however. While Guillermo Rigondeaux was supposed to be a match for Lomachenko, if not in terms of size, at least in talent, Linares has physical advantages in height and reach over his Ukrainian antagonist. Linares also has a far deeper history as a professional, having slipped clear of the amateur ranks aged 17 – six years before Lomachenko would grab even the first of his Olympic gold medals. The Venezuelan won his first world title belt before Lomachenko’s first gold, moreover, beating Oscar Larios on the undercard of Bernard Hopkins’ fight with Winky Wright in 2007. Although he’s had his bumps on the way, notably losses to Juan Carlos Salgado, Antonio Demarco and Sergio Thompson, Linares is an exceptional fighter.
Yet Lomachenko’s opponents always dwarf him in professional experience. Everyone has had more fights than the Ukrainian: only Rigondeaux, of his opponents, had fewer than 20 wins. This fight represents a step-up in weight for Lomachenko; yet it is Linares who is taking a huge step-up in class. Listing the statistical advantages opponents supposedly hold over Lomachenko is a fool’s errand: the question is not whether his opponents have had more fights or more title belts, but whether they have had the right kind of experience. Thus far, only Orlando Salido, who edged the southpaw in his
second fight, has answered in the affirmative. Still, it is easy to see why this fight has caught the imagination. Although Linares and Lomachenko belong to separate promoters and TV networks, HBO, ESPN, Top Rank and Golden Boy all bought themselves a decent bit of good will by making the sort of fight boxing usually excels in cancelling. Moreover, Linares is a far more aesthetically pleasing proposition than Salido, so far Lomachenko’s only substantial challenge, who introduced the Ukrainian to a brand of home-cooked slugging that even the twice gold-medal winner found a little tough to stomach. Unlike Salido, Linares is a stylish boxerpuncher with quick hands and smooth feet whose preference is for centre ring but who is also willing to move. When on song, “El Niño de Oro” fights with an elegance over which it is hard not to purr.
In this respect, he appears the
➤ perfect counterpart to the Ukrainian, whose grace is frenzied rather than urbane, savage instead of deliberated. Lomachenko fights in a style of almost manic refinement, with his near preternatural advantages in technique and skill exacerbated by a temperamental unwillingness to tarry: unlike other Olympian technicians, like the moody Rigondeaux, “Hi-tech” Lomachenko is always willing to put on a show. Because his arsenal is so expansive and yet so devastatingly finessed, the Ukrainian’s fights often look like pastiche – as though he’s resembling a thousand fighters in one.
Nevertheless, Lomachenko is still desperately in need of some competition. Having tickled and then pummelled most of the super-featherweight division into submission, with lesser lights such as Jason Sosa and Miguel Marriaga tossed aside like dross, and Roman Martinez and Nicholas Walters embarrassed into different shades of disaster, Lomachenko’s last outing was a muchhyped debacle against Rigondeaux. Not that this was the Ukrainian’s fault – the 30-year-old fought exactly like himself, regardless of his opponent’s supposed defensive nous. The problem was Rigondeaux, whose obvious talent is matched neither by desire nor smarts, and who quit on his stool after the merest sign of trouble (after claiming a broken hand, Rigondeaux’s promoter later let slip that he’d suffered a contusion). Writer Carlos Acevedo put it best when he suggested that Rigondeaux “yielded under relatively mild circumstances even preliminary fighters would have ignored.”
Rigondeaux’s disdainful take on boxing absurdism aside, Lomachenko’s recent fights have all been almost hyperbolically uncompetitive. Twotime super-featherweight beltholder Roman Martinez was swatted aside like a bottom-tier bum. Nicholas Walters was made to double- and treble-guess himself so many times he ended up drowning in dread. Sosa and Marriaga were so far out of their depth they were in the wrong pool. The Ukrainian is crying out for someone to push his extraordinary talents nearer to the limits of their capacities.
In isolation, Linares passes all the sight tests. Not since Thompson busted him up and stopped him in 2012 has Linares suffered defeat. His fights are rarely dull – recent bouts with solid pros such as Kevin Mitchell and Anthony Crolla have all been eminently watchable. Yet Linares’ career has been punctuated by a lot more question marks than exclamation points. Although the Venezuelan has
LOMACHENKO REPRESENTS MORE OF A STEP-UP FOR LINARES THAN VICE VERSA
shown a willingness to travel in recent years, his decision to move to Japan at 17 in order to kickstart his professional career has never really been matched by any equivalent ambition. Linares has a creaky chin to go with his paper skin – while he is well known for cutting over his eyes and high cheekbones, the Venezuelan was blasted out by agricultural slugger Salgado in a round, and by the unremarkable Thompson in two. His second fight against Crolla in Manchester last year might have been a good earner, but was also a waste of time. No one thought Crolla deserved to win the first bout; a rematch was completely unnecessary. Even then, the gutsy and capable Crolla barely touched Linares and his eyes were red and puffy all the same. Luke Campbell nearly pipped him in September last year.
Even Linares’ most memorable fight was a loss, when southpaw tough guy Antonio Demarco beat up the Venezuelan down the stretch to gain a last gasp stoppage in the 11th round.
While Linares led on all three scorecards by the time of the finish, Demarco had exacted more than his fair pound of flesh – Linares finished the fight with a spurting gash over the bridge of his nose, a torn right eye, and a face masked in blood. By the end of the night, Demarco’s white shorts were smeared crimson.
Lomachenko represents much more of a step-up for Linares, then, than vice versa. While the former will be jumping a division higher, weight classes appear mostly incidental to the Ukrainian: he has long insisted that size will not be a factor in stopping fights getting made (good news in a sport where most everything else will). Linares has the advantage in numbers, but that is coincidental to fighting Lomachenko, and not much more. For the Venezuelan, this is undoubtedly the biggest fight of his career, and the first since losing to Demarco that has really captured the whole boxing world’s attention. If anyone is nervous, it is likely to be him.
Yet while it lasts, the fight should certainly be good. If Linares is too erratic to be considered the favourite, he’s blessed with plenty of talent. Lomachenko shouldn’t be able to steal in with the sort of reckless abandon he’s favoured against lesser opponents, given the Venezuelan’s willingness to give as good as he gets. Jorge should hit too hard and too quick for Lomachenko to be able to treat him with his usual measure of disdain. And even if Lomachenko can, even if the Ukrainian is truly so good that he can bypass an offensive arsenal as deep as the Venezuelan’s and make him look like an amateur, Linares has enough heart to mean this should still be a show.
Unlike Rigondeaux, the Venezuelan will not turn up a disappearing act. Against Demarco, he fought half the fight with several wounds that verged on the grotesque. Given that Lomachenko is always certain to get his fair share of licks in, Linares’s fragile face will need to be prepared for the full brunt of the Ukrainian’s attack. For the fight to be competitive, however, Linares will need to be several measures better than he’s ever been before. No one doubts the 32-year-old’s talent; yet his chin will need far better protection than it usually receives.
Although Linares is taller and possesses a longer reach than Lomachenko, his usual tendency to fight from the centre ring risks putting him always in harm’s way. Not only will he need to extend his talent beyond seemingly its furthermost limit, then, but he will also need to move better, to use the farther reaches of the ring, more than he is usually willing to do.
Just as Linares will need to do more, Lomachenko will also have to do less – or at least he will have to be unable to do quite so much at the higher weight for the Venezuelan to prove his match. Certainly, the further up in weight the Ukrainian progresses the less likely his being able to treat all opponents with disdain becomes. Lomachenko was not only Rigondeaux’s better in their December bout; he was also several notches bigger at the weight. Linares should at least look his match.
Even then, however, Lomachenko should have far too much for his opponent to deal with.
The wrong side of 30, and having had a surprisingly hard time with Campbell last year, Linares is likely at the start of a downward swing. Lomachenko might be close enough in age, but his sustained high tempo combination of defensive smarts and smothering attack is rarely less than irresistible.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the best fights for Lomachenko are at higher weights still, unless he can tempt the oddly reticent Mikey Garcia into a blockbuster match. Yet after the hard work that went into making this fight happen, it will take a whole lot more good will to get Garcia – formerly of Top Rank, now, after a highly acrimonious split, with Al Haymon – to tangle with the Ukrainian. Until then, it should be more of the same on Saturday night.
Prediction: Lomachenko TKO-10 bn
LINARES WILL NEED TO MOVE BETTER THAN USUAL, TO USE ALL THE RING