We’ve got a whole week of Oscar De La Hoya-Manny Pacquiao coverage ahead for you, starting today (with some slices of other things, like this week’s premier episode of “The Contender” on Versus), so let’s clear the deck from this past weekend.
Above, in an admittedly poor quality video, Edgar Sosa completed his junior flyweight (108 lbs.) belt defense in Mexico City with a nice finishing sequence against the game Juanito Rubillar. Sosa was ranked #4 in the division by Ring magazine, Rubillar #5.
Jorge Linares, one of my faves, snagged a junior lightweight (130 lbs.) title belt in Panama City in a move up to the division after a long layoff due to injury. Good to see Linares back in action, but the fact that Whyber Garcia — whom Linares knocked out in the 5th to become the third man to knock out Garcia in his last six fights — was fighting for a vacant title belt tells you all you need to know about what kind of “title” this really was. Now it’s time for Linares to get in there with someone real. Robert Guerrero and Jorge Barrios offer opportunities for him to take on another talented youngster and a highly credible vet, respectively, in what would both be good fights. Just for instance.
In Rhode Island, 2008 Olympian Demetrius Andrade scored his second career win with a 4th round knockout of a junior middleweight (154 lbs.) opponent, and heavyweight Jason Estrada got another win. In his pro debut on the HBO undercard, fellow 2008 Olympian Shawn Estrada (middleweight, 160 lbs.) won by 1st round knockout, but it isn’t going to be a year Estrada remembers fondly: He lost his father earlier this year one day after falling short in the Olympics, and his trainer, Rodrigo Mosquera, reportedly suffered a heart attack before his pro debut and didn’t attend. No word on the trainer’s condition.
