Upset of the Year: Jorge Linares shocked in a minute

FanPost promoted by SC

This is one of the bigger shockers in recent memory. Surefire future star and new Golden Boy signee Jorge Linares was destroyed in slightly over a minute last night  in his adopted home of Japan by unheralded, but undefeated Juan Carlos Salgado of Mexico. Salgado now holds the WBA slice of the championship at 130.

Golden Boy must be kicking themselves now. Why couldn't they have just waited until after his fight? That question is a bit rhetorical because the answer is obvious. Salgado posed no threat to Linares, right? Linares had been tested and passed beyond all expectations. All Golden Boy had to do was get him active, healthy, and on US television. A cash cow and future P4P elite was the only outcome forseeable by most.

Yet, here we are. Salgado, a fighter who had not been tested and regardless of what happened in the fight did not deserve based on resume to get a title shot, throws a couple shots and the future is rewritten. This has to go down as even a more shocking upset than Khan/Prescott. Linares had succeeded way above the level that Amir Khan had been getting hurt at and Salgado was just as unknown as Prescott. In fact, I had even seen Prescott fight once before the Khan fight. These YouTube clips of this fight are all I have seen from Salgado.

Salgado could be legit (though I doubt it), but whether or not he is, this is a huge, huge boost for Mexican boxing. Finally, a young true contender has emerged for our amigos south of the border to rally behind. I can't think of a single win by any Mexican fighter under 30 to top this one.

Where does Linares go from here? I imagine he goes right back to what he was doing before after a soft touch. We've seen his talent and ability. First round KOs may be impressive, but they are also at times prone to flukish circumstances. I have little doubt that we will see Linares back with a belt fairly soon. He came out and was caught cold. He has had little history (I vaguely remember him being hurt only once before) of a bad chin and certainly has the talent to hide it if he suddenly has found himself in possession of chinaware below his cheeks.

Note from SC: I have only ever seen Salgado (21-0, 15 KO) fight one time, when he wound up bumped onto the televised portion of the Pacquiao-Morales III card back in 2006. That's a lot of time to improve, but while he looked promising defeating Marcos Licona that night, you wouldn't have ever guessed he would one day beat a guy like Linares in 73 seconds. First round knockouts are fluky by nature, but this is a real stunner. Linares (27-1, 18 KO) honestly shouldn't be affected too much by this, though; with Golden Boy, he can come in and build his name in the States. He's still a virtual unknown in America and the one loss isn't going to kill his prospects.

Video after the jump.