Chris Linson Jr. stepped up in weight class for his boxing match against Joseph Brady Friday night and was not ready for the increased power. Linson was pounded and suffered his first loss since 1999.
A raucous crowd of about 2,500 at the Isleta Casino & Resort saw an entertaining main event, as two of the better boxers in New Mexico went toe-to-toe in a 12-round slugfest for the World Boxing Council Fecarbox Junior Middleweight Title.
Linson, a Santa Fe native and UNM student, battled it out with Brady before succumbing to several furious combinations in the 11th round to lose on a technical knockout.
"A 12-round fight is a long fight, so my game plan was to box him until the eighth or ninth round and give him a lot of movement and make him chase me, so he was the aggressor," Brady said. "Then my plan was to, in the 10th round, come out and pressure him, be the aggressor, and I think that is what threw him off."
The loss dropped Linson's record to 21-5-1, while Brady, from Albuquerque, remains undefeated in his young career at 9-0 with four knockouts.
Before the opening bell, Linson looked overmatched, giving up about six inches in height and several inches in arm reach to his opponent. Linson usually fights at 140 or 147 pounds, but moved up to fight Brady.
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Brady used his physical advantages well for most of the fight, keeping Linson, known as J.C., at a distance with stiff right jabs and countering with ferocious left hooks.
"I felt with my height advantage and my reach advantage I could box him and not let the crowd and the emotion get to me to slug with him early," Brady said.
Linson was distraught after the match and unavailable for comment.
Chris Linson Sr., a former boxer and his son's trainer, said that Brady's reach and left-handed fighting style made it difficult for Linson.
"J.C.'s match is a boxing match and he went ahead and changed from a boxing match into a slugfest and usually the bigger man wins," Linson Sr. said.
Linson tried to defuse Brady's advantage early on, staying close to him and working on the inside. The fight looked like it was going to be an early round knockout for Linson as he landed numerous right hooks and uppercuts to Brady's head to stun him.
However, Brady's Lennox Lewis-type boxing style was too tough for Linson to handle, taking over after the first three rounds to get the win.
"The first three rounds he definitely outboxed (Brady), and I thought that was the way that we should continue, but then he started landing such good shots and it started to look too good, too easy," Linson Sr. said. "And then he started trading, which is not our game."
Linson left himself vulnerable as he reached for punches and Brady countered with numerous solid head shots, one of which hurt Linson in the fifth round.
Linson Sr. blamed himself for the loss, saying that he did not help his son make adjustments after the early rounds.
"Things went so well at the beginning of the fight that I think we let our guard down," he said.
Linson tried to make a comeback after getting frustrated with several low blows by Brady. He flustered Brady with a right uppercut in the eighth round, but the momentum quickly vanished. Linson got tired and left his hands down, leaving himself open to Brady's powerful left hook.
"I knew I had the stamina to go the last three rounds," Brady said. "I could slug it out with J.C., but for 12 rounds I know I couldn't do it. So I saved myself for the last three rounds and let the bigger man take over."
Brady went in for the kill and had Linson on the ropes several times in the 11th round before Linson Sr. threw in the towel and jumped in front of his son to save him from more punishment.
Linson Sr. said his son was getting dazed so he had to stop the fight.
"When the boxing match went power to power, J.C. lost because he uses more finesse," he said.
