By Jake Donovan
There’s a lot to like about Jorge Linares—even when you’re the promoter of the fighters upon whom the former three-division champion continues to feast.
Still, the Venezuelan’s all-action style and charismatic personality has long ago made a fan out of Eddie Hearn, who hasn’t quite given up on finding the right boxer to beat him.
For now, he gets to serve as the lead promoter for Linares’ next ring appearance, as he faces Mexico’s Pablo Cano this Friday at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theatre in New York City. The bout comes as part of a DAZN USA-streamed show topped by unbeaten middleweight titlist Demetrius Andrade in his first defense versus Russia’s Artur Akavov.
“Jorge Linares has boxed on so many of our shows,” Hearn commented of his placement on Friday show, which comes in association with Linares’ U.S. promoter, Golden Boy Promotions. “I’ve never managed to find a fighter to beat him—Kevin Mitchell, Anthony Crolla twice… I’ve looked forward to watching his past fights and certainly look forward to watching him in the future.”
Linares (45-4, 29KOs) also owns a points win over Hearn-promoted Luke Campbell, the one bout within the friendly promotional rivalry which took place on a Golden Boy show. It was among the six successful defenses he recorded through two different titles at lightweight, with his reign ultimately ending last May in a stoppage loss to Vasiliy Lomachenko.
The bout was his last at lightweight, moving up to 140 last September in a 3rd round knockout of Abner Cotto.
Cano (31-7-1, 21KOs) has seen better days, but there is still plenty of fighting spirit left in his heart. At his best, he proved a tough out as shown in a narrow win over unbeaten Johan Perez to claim an interim title, along with hard-fought losses to Paul Malignaggi and Shane Mosley.
Still, those moments were long ago, with the aforementioned losses marking a stretch where the now 29-year old from Mexico went just 4-6-1 and with an Oct. ’17 knockout loss on the club circuit signaling that the end was near.
However, Cano revived his career in his lone bout of 2018, surprisingly dominating previously unbeaten Ruslan Madiev en route to a technical decision win last September.
The winner of Linares-Cano on Friday will go on to become the mandatory challenger to the super lightweight title currently owned by Kiryl Relikh.
However, said victory will have plenty of time to kill in waiting on such a fight, given that the title is tied up in the World Boxing Super Series tournament. Relkih—who edged Eduward Troyanovsky in the first quarterfinals match of the 140-pound bracket—will next face unbeaten Regis Prograis in a bout to determine who advances to the WBSS finals.
With the winner will also go the title, leaving whomever emerges victorious between Linares and Cano without a belt to fight for—unless willing to travel in a different direction.
Hearn happens to have a 140-pound titlist of his own, Maurice Hooker who will be in attendance on Friday. The unbeaten Texan will primarily be on hand to scout an all-New York clash between Long Island-bred former titlist Chris Algieri and Queens native Daniel Gonzalez but could easily be persuaded to take on another challenge should the right opportunity present itself.
“I mentioned that Maurice will be here to check on the bout between Chris Algieri and Daniel Gonzalez,” Hearn noted. “But I know he’d love to fight a Jorge Linares, should he emerge victorious on Friday.”
As Linares—through his association with Golden Boy—is part of the DAZN family, his team doesn’t see any issue at all with making a fight with Hooker, given the boxer’s track record versus Matchroom clients.
“We’ve been great partners in the past, matching Golden Boy Promotions fighters with Matchroom fighters,” stated Robert Diaz, head matchmaker for Golden Boy who is in New York representing the company in support of Linares. “Now we’re partners together presenting the best boxing on DAZN.
“Eddie said it, he keeps looking for fighters to beat Linares. We beat him once, we beat him twice, we beat him three times… why not go for number four?”
Hooker is coming off a breakout 2018 ring campaign. The Dallas native traveled to England for his first title fight, scoring a big road win over Terry Flanagan last June. His first defense came in the Oklahoma City backyard of Alex Saucedo, an unbeaten mandatory contender whom he stopped in seven rounds last November.