Oscar De La Hoya Suggests Jorge Linares Finds New Trainer

After his stunning loss to Sergio Thompson last Saturday, Jorge Linares has some thinking to do. He has lost his last two fights by KO, and he has looked more like a flawed fighter than a guy who has superstar potential. It seems that his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, thinks that his overburdened trainer, Freddie Roach, should shoulder a good bit of blame for these losses. On his twitter stream Oscar had these comments following Jorge's loss.

"Linares needs a new trainer. He has so much natural ability but has no defense. [Jorge] needs a new trainer someone that is going to pay attention and teach him defense! [Freddie Roach was] just to busy and I was told he didn't train him for this one... if you do not get hit you can't get knocked out... if he had defense he would be untouchable. If I had no chin I would do everything in my power to learn the craft of defense."

I can't say that I disagree with Oscar's analysis. It's not like Freddie Roach is known for making fighters defensive geniuses. In fact, a good number of Freddie Roach's fighters have had defensive issues in their past couple of fights.

Posted below this story I have included the entire Sergio Thompson fight. In the second round, you can that Jorge keeps his left hand a little low, leaving himself wide open to an overhand right. This is the exact punch that leaves Jorge woozy and eventually floors him. Two huge overhand rights that he could not block because his left hand was way too low.

This tells me that Freddie has let Jorge develop poor habits through neglect or Jorge doesn't listen to Freddie anymore. He needs a good defensive trainer, which might mean that he could train with Floyd Sr. Of course, this would be dependent on Floyd the Elder's health, but I would love to see Senior get back into the game. Do you think Floyd Sr. would be a good fight for Jorge Linares? Who else would you like to see training Jorge?