By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios may have blown his chance at a big money fight against 38-year-old WBO interim light welterweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez on July 14th at the Cowboys Stadium after last night’s performance against Richard Abril at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Rios won a highly unpopular 12 round split decision over Abril. As of now, Rios no longer listed as fighting on July 14th by Boxrec, which suggests that Bob Arum, his promoter, may have pulled Rios from the fight card.

Rios was supposed to be fighting in the main event against Marquez in the July 14th PPV card, but it looks like Arum may have had a change of mind. It make sense because it would be a really hard sell if Arum were to try and justify that Rios deserves to fight a fighter as great as Marquez in July coming off of Rios’ terrible performance against Abril. But what this does mean is that Arum’s backup plan, unbeaten southpaw lightweight contender Mercito Gesta (25-0, 13 KO’s) will almost surely go into effect.

Why Gesta? Because Gesta is one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters and there’s no way Arum would not put Marquez in with one of his in house fighters in a fight card he’s putting together. Gesta needs a big fight so that he can get a name for himself. He looked very average in beating Oscar Cuervo last night on the undercard of the Rios vs. Abril fight card in Mandalay Bay. I mean, it’ll be a slaughter because Gesta is someone that recently struggled to beat journeyman Manuel Perez, but Arum doesn’t have anyone else to throw in with Marquez. It looks like Gesta is getting the fight by default. It’s going to be a total slaughter because Gesta is incredibly easy to hit and only has the beginning stages of skills. He’s ranked in the top 10, but in truth I see the guy as a 2nd tier lightweight. It’s going to be pure comedy watching Marquez make easy work of Gesta. I just hope Arum discounts the card steeply to make up for the mismatch in the main event.

Of all the guys that have been mentioned recently for Marquez’s next tune-up fight to get ready for a Manny Pacquiao fight, the southpaw Gesta is probably the most suited for the purpose. But that’s not saying a lot because Gesta is still nothing like Pacquiao. You can’t even say he’s a poor man’s Pacquiao because he’s so far away from Pacquiao in ability. Marquez would be better off digging up another southpaw from the 140 or 147 pound divisions rather than facing Gesta and slaughtering him without benefit.