By Kenneth Friedman: Jorge Linares has reportedly tested positive for coronavirus, and his scheduled August 28 fight with Javier Fortuna is now in jeopardy.
Golden Boy hasn’t made a statement yet on the former three-division world champion Linare’s situation, but we could be hearing something soon.
This latest news for Linares is more bad luck for the Venezuelan fighter, who was recently mentioned as a possible opponent for Ryan Garcia for July. The pandemic got in the ay of that fight from taking place, unfortunately.
Linares is now dealing with more bad luck with him testing positive for coronavirus.
Linares is asymptomatic for coronavirus
The 34-year-old Linares (47-5, 29 KOs) is asymptomatic, and the doctors want him to rest for the next ten days to recover. Whether his scheduled August 28 bout against 35-2-1, 24 KOs) will go ahead is unknown.
There are still 21 days remaining before Linares’ fight against Fortuna, and it’s possible that he can recover and test negative by then.
Linares and the 31-year-old Fortuna are supposed to be fighting for the WBC Diamond lightweight title. The winner of the contest would be in a position to challenge for a world title against WBC 135-lb champion Devin Haney (24-0, 15 KOs) or face some of the other talented fighters like Ryan Garcia or Luke Campbell.
Linares can’t afford to lose time with his career, as he’ll be turning 35 on August 22, and that’s considered ancient for a fighter in the lighter weight classes. What Linares has going for him is his hand speed, which is still better than the top guys in the division like Vasily Lomachenko, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez.
Nevertheless, Linares is running out of time to try and set-up big money fights, and he needs to get busy with his career to maximize what he has left.
Linares last fought on Valentine’s Day on February 14 in stopping Carlos Morales in the fourth round, and he looked great in that contest. That performance by Linares showed the boxing world the difference between him and Ryan Garcia, who had struggled to beat Morales by a controversial 10 round majority decision in 2018.
Ryan Garcia fight still interests Linares
Linares said in an interview this week that Ryan Garcia wasn’t ready to fight him, and he believes that’s one of the reasons their fight didn’t happen.
The former three-division world champion Linares still wants to face Ryan after he battles Luke Campbell this year. Those two are negotiating a fight, which could take place in October or November.
It’ll be up to Team Garcia if they want to revisit the Linares fight if they’re able to get past Campbell. It would be risky for Ryan to take on Linares, given the vast difference between them in terms of experience.