Former three-division world champion Jorge Linares of Venezuela who has been fighting out of Tokyo’s Teiken Boxing Gym dropped a 12-round unanimous decision to Britain’s Jack Catterall in the World Boxing Association Intercontinental super lightweight title fight on Oct. 21 (22 Japan time) at M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool.

  With the defeat, his fourth straight since he was decisioned by champion Devin Haney of the United States in the World Boxing Council lightweight title fight in Las Vegas, Nevada in May 2021, the 38-year-old Linares indicted he will hang up the gloves, saying he has no more reason to continue fighting.

  While there were no knockdowns in the fight, it was the left-handed Catterall who controlled the fight most of the way as one of the three judges scored the fight 117-111 and the remaining two each had it 116-112, all in favor of the 30-year-old Catterall.

  Catterall staggered Linares in the fifth round with a straight left and also landed a flurry of right-and-left combinations near the end of the eighth round.

  While Linares, who suffered a cut above his left eyelid in the second round due to an accidental head butt, occasionally rallied, he could not connect with his strong punches as the fleet-footed British boxer fended off Linares’s offense.

  With the defeat, Linares, who was a former world featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight champion, now has a record of 47 wins, including 29 knockouts, against nine losses. For his part, Catterall improved his record to 28 wins, 13 by KO, against a loss.