Jack Catterall craftily outpointed a faded former champion just as easily Saturday night as oddsmakers indicated he would before they entered the ring in Liverpool, England.
The British southpaw hurt Linares with a left hand late in the fifth round and otherwise handled Linares rather easily in what was a dull 12-round junior welterweight bout at M&S Bank Arena. Judge Steve Gray scored nine rounds for Catterall, who won 117-111 on Gray’s card and 116-112 on the cards of judges Olena Pobyvailo and Guiseppe Quartarone.
Chorley’s Catterall (28-1, 13 KOs) has now won back-to-back bouts since his controversial 12-round, split-decision defeat to Scotland’s Josh Taylor (19-1, 13 KOs) in February 2022 at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow. Taylor, who was the undefeated, undisputed 140-pound champion when he edged Catterall, withdrew from their twice-postponed rematch earlier this year to make a mandated defense of his WBO junior welterweight title against Teofimo Lopez.
Taylor lost his WBO belt to Lopez (19-1, 13 KOs) by unanimous decision June 10 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Venezuela’s Linares (47-9, 29 KOs) has lost four fights in a row. The former featherweight, junior lightweight and lightweight champion hasn’t won a fight since he knocked out Mexican veteran Carlos Morales (then 19-4-4) in the fourth round of their February 2019 bout at Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
In complete control, Catterall dictated the pace and distance during the 10th, 11th and 12 rounds, each of which appeared to win. Linares had difficulty throwing hard punches toward Catterall in those rounds, let alone landing any.
Linares landed a right hand with a little more than a minute to go in the ninth round. Catterall otherwise was effective offensively and defensively during the ninth round.
For a second straight round, Catterall closed the eighth round strong by landing several left hands and a right hook before the bell sounded to end it.
Catterall controlled the action in the sixth and seventh rounds, when he slipped most of Linares’ punches. Catterall landed four straight lefts during the final 20 seconds of the seventh round, the last of which drew an animated response from Linares.
Catterall changed the fight with a left that staggered Linares and made him move back into the ropes with just under 25 seconds on the clock in the fifth round. Catterall tried to finish Linares, but the survived that trouble.
A right by Linares landed with just under 40 seconds to go in the fourth round. A little less than 20 seconds later, Linares caught Catterall with a straight right hand.
The crafty Catterall moved well during the third round and avoided most of Linares’ punches in those three minutes. Catterall’s left landed a few seconds before the third round ended.
Linares’ right hand got around Catterall’s guard just before the midway mark of the second round. Catterall caught Linares with a left hand in an exchange later in the second round.
Linares also came away from the second round with a small cut above his right eye, which was caused by an accidental clash of heads.
A right hand by Linares backed Catterall into a corner with just over 40 seconds to go in the first round. A straight left by Catterall landed 1:15 into the opening round.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.