De La Hoya: Linares needs a new trainer; he needs someone to teach him defense

Lightweight contender Jorge Linares (31-3, 20 Ko’s) suffered his 2nd consecutive knockout loss, this time to the big hitting Sergio Thompson (22-2, 20 KO’s) last night n a WBC lightweight title eliminator bout at the Oasis Hotel Complex in Cancun, Mexico. Linares was knocked down from a hard combination from Thompson in the 2nd round and the fight was halted after the knockdown due to a cut Linares’ suffered over his left eye.

The stoppage really saved Linares more embarrassment and another likely beating because Thompson was really teeing off on him before the knockdown. Linares was battered by Antonio DeMarco last October in an 11th round TKO.

Oscar De La Hoya, Linares’ promoter, thinks that Linares needs a new train. In that case, Freddie Roach will have to go because he’s the one training him now.

De La Hoya said on his twitter today “He needs a new trainer. He has so much natural ability but has no defense. He needs a new trainer someone that is going to pay attention to his defense! He’s [Roach] too busy and I was told he didn’t train for this one…If you don’t get hit you can’t get knocked out…look at his natural ability. If he had defense he would be untouchable.”

Well there it is. It looks like De La Hoya wants Linares to dump Roach and find someone that can teach Linares some defense. I’d suggest Floyd Mayweather Sr. or maybe Pernell Whitaker, someone like that. Mayweather Sr. would be a good starting point.

Roach is excellent at teaching offense I hear, but some boxing fans think he’s not good at training fighters how to defend themselves. His fighter Amir Khan was beaten recently and now Linares. Things aren’t going well for some of Roach’s best fighters. Manny Pacquiao dodged a bullet in his questionable win over Juan Manuel Marquez last November and Roach’s #2 fighter WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is incredibly easy to hit.