Student punches his own ticket

Chris Linson Jr. thought his boxing career was down for the count, but he recovered and is now punching his way to the top.

Linson is one of the state's best boxers. He holds two championship belts, including a world title, has tried out for the Olympic team and has trained with two of New Mexico's best boxers in Johnny Tapia and Danny Romero Jr.

At 23, Linson seems to have a charmed boxing career. However, he has made it this far with hard work, sacrifice and some bumps along the way.

Now, armed with a 20-4-1 record and 11 knockouts, the Santa Fe native and UNM student is ready to take on the big boys. He is ranked fourth in the welterweight weight class by the National Boxing Association, behind some very impressive company: "Sugar" Shane Mosley is the champion, Oscar De La Hoya is ranked second and Jimmy Page is at No. 3.

"Sky's the limit," Romero said. "Without a doubt it is all about what he wants to do. He is beating the best and his style makes for a difficult fight for anybody. He has guts beyond guts. It is all up to him."

Linson started his professional boxing career with a bang, compiling a 15-1-1 record in his first 17 fights. Then adversity came that almost ended his career.

Beginning in Oct. 1998, Linson lost his next three boxing matches, and two of them left Linson bloodied and bruised. After one of those fights he required 30 stitches over his left eye.

"I was getting a cocky attitude," Linson said. "People were telling things that would inflate my head. I would fly out to Las Vegas for fights and go to casinos. I was 21 years old living the high life. People were letting me be like that."

In the spring of 1999, he took eight months off and enrolled in the police academy training program. After graduating from the academy, Linson became a deputy for the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department, where he worked for 18 months before returning to boxing.

"I thought about quitting when I lost the three fights, but something inside of me told me I had to get back into it," Linson said.

He said he fulfilled a lifelong dream by being a police officer.

"I wanted to be a cop, and I always had an interest in law," Linson said. "I thought I would give that a shot because it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was a great experience, I met some great people. I really respect the people that do it day in and day out."

With a new attitude and a stricter training regimen, Linson demolished his next five opponents. This included winning the National Boxing Association Continental Welterweight Championship on July 15 against Gerald Reed and then winning the NBA World Championship Nov. 15 in a rematch with Reed.

"Winning the world title was a big accomplishment," Linson said. "When I won the continental title, I was really emotional. I was really happy about that one because I recovered after having had such a bad year in 1999, losing three straight fights."

Boxing came naturally for Linson because his dad, Chris Sr., was a professional who compiled a record of 26-6 from 1979-1984.

Linson Jr. did not want to box at first. He said his friends wanted to learn to box and asked his dad to train them. Linson Jr. soon began to hang around the gym and picked up some boxing gloves. He began boxing at the age of 13.

With his father training him, Linson Jr. cruised through his amateur career with a 120-15 record and 80 knockouts. He won the New Mexico Golden Gloves championships, a tournament held for the best amateur boxers in the state, several times. He participated in numerous National Golden Gloves competitions and the U.S. Championships. Linson Jr. failed to make the 1996 Olympic team, but he went pro soon after and won his first fight on June 22, 1996. Linson Jr. did not lose for a year and a half, going 10-0-1 before his first loss.

Linson Jr. credits much of his success and his climb back into the ring to his father and their chemistry.

"We work well as a father-son team," Linson Jr. said. "Boxing is, was and will be our lives together. He is the frame behind it all."

Linson Sr. admits that being his son's trainer has some advantages and disadvantages.

"He knows that I am looking out for him and will not try to do something to hurt him," Linson Sr. said. "At the same time, when he is struggling, I want to help him out and do a lot of the work for him. But the more I do for him, the worse off he is. He has to do everything on his own. He has to pay a price to be a boxer."

One disadvantage Linson Sr. said his son does have is not having a boxing promoter to set up fights. Linson Sr. tries to set up fights for his son and usually gets help from the Tapia or Romero camp. They try to set up Linson Jr. on an undercard of a main event that either of them is fighting in.

Sometimes, it doesn't work. Linson Jr. was to be on the undercard of Tapia's March 17 bout, but his fight was cancelled for unspecified reasons.

Tapia and Romero have helped Linson Jr.'s career by inviting him to train with them. He is training with Romero, the North American Boxing Organization super bantamweight champion, in Romero's gym.

Linson Jr. describes his style of boxing as more skill rather than power. A bit slow and lacking a knockout punch, he looks for opponent's weaknesses and tries to exploit them. Linson Sr. has seen improvement in his son's technique and says Tapia and Romero have helped the younger Linson.

"Nothing but good comes from training with them; being in a knowledgeable boxing environment," Linson Sr. said. "They are not only boxing champions, but boxing greats. The little polish that has rubbed off makes a difference. I have already seen a big improvement in power, just being around Danny."

The Linsons have known Tapia and Romero ever since Linson Sr. was a boxer.

Romero said he enjoys helping Linson and the boxing profession is like a brotherhood, so he jumps at the chance to help another boxer.

"Any path that we can pave for one of our own, we will do it," Romero said. "We got to take care of our own. With all my influence, I try help him as much as I can."

Linson Jr. is studying pre-law at UNM and hopes to go to law school after his boxing career is over. But for now, he said he is hoping to get a chance to fight Mosley or De La Hoya.

Linson Sr. said he does not want to look too far ahead but sees his son fighting one of those two boxers.

"Those fights are definitely on the table, but the idea is when we bite them off, we can chew them too," Linson Sr. said. "We want to make sure those fights are attainable, the win attainable, not just take the fight."

Linson said he is training hard and knows that some day very soon he will get to take on the kings of the sport, ready and willing to dethrone them.