With cuts to his eye and tip of his nose, Jorge Linares – adorned with a mask of blood – was stopped in the eleventh round as newly crowned WBC lightweight world champion Antonio DeMarco stopped the Venezuelan in the penultimate round of a bout scheduled for 12. Linares was dishing out a boxing lesson up until the stoppage, but was ultimately taking too much punishment to continue.
Showing off his technical skillset, Linares boxed his way to the ten score in the opening round due to his shot selection, his foot skills and his general ring movement at the lightweight championship fight in the Staples Center, Los Angeles on Saturday, October 15.
A stylish fighter known for his accumulative knockout power rather than his one punch power, Linares boxed with a sprightliness on his feet throughout the opening rounds, however, the second round was a more competitive three minutes than the first as Antonio DeMarco had warmed up boxed his way into the fight. An accurate puncher, it was Linares who had maintained the edge.
A southpaw fighter, Linares had a hard portside jab and it landed often in the third round. In the final minute of the third round, Linares sent a hellacious uppercut to the chin of DeMarco.
Like the third, Linares maintained the superiority in the fourth round. Leading off on that solid right hand jab, Linares landed the southpaw lead shot to the head, but more so the body in the fourth round. DeMarco was beginning to blacken and mark under the left eye which was a result of the straight right punches from the previous stanzas.
Linares showed an ability to slip a shot as he showed good head movement when he ducked under DeMarco’s incoming shot. In the next round, discipline went out the window as the two traded shots within a tight space with neither wanting to back down. DeMarco came on strong, landing the heavier leather and the more effective shots, the result of which was a bloody, ghastly cut that opened up on the bridge of Linares’ nose.
Linares’ corner went to work on the cut between rounds but sent their man back out for action with it leaking. With blood dripping down the bridge of his nose it was arguably in good placement as it had no chance of impairing his vision.
At the beginning of the second minute of the eighth round, Linares thudded a meaningful punch into DeMarco’s chin from close range. Popping the right jab out and looping that left hand over the top, Linares attempted to regain the momentum that he had lost following his fourth round success. In the final minute of the stanza, Linares unleashed three to five punch combinations – the hook punches the most damaging.
Linares was unfazed by the cuts but he had two seconds working on them as his nose would not stop leaking and a cut, too, on his eye was also dripping claret. Linares opened proceedings in the ninth round with a solid uppercut. Fighting with urgency – most likely because of his troubling eye – Linares fired off eight punch flurries as he upped the tempo and the aggression whilst looking for an end to the contest.
Prior to the beginning of the tenth, the ringside physician inspected Linares’ cuts and informed the referee to ‘watch the eye’. The cut to the eye proved plug-able as it’s leakage was prevented, however, no coagulate, not even adrenaline nor grease stopped the thick flow of claret from the top of his nose. In the tenth round, the difference between the fighters was DeMarco’s desire to engage against Linares’ want to box.
DeMarco fought with bad intentions in the penultimate round, aggressively fighting at a fast tempo. Linares should have grabbed, but by trading with his opponent he took further punishment to cuts that were already angry at being disturbed. Two warriors, multiple shots, all of them heavy but, perhaps sensing that Linares was coasting to the victory, DeMarco stopped his man in emphatic fashion.
With the win, DeMarco claimed a slice of the lightweight championship and moved to 26-2-1, 19ko while Linares suffered his second defeat and moved to 31-2-0, 20ko.
