By Chris Williams: Unbeaten lightweight/light welterweight Mercito Gesta (25-0, 13 KO’s) fights Ty Barnett (20-2-1, 13 KO’s) on Friday night on ESPN2 in a 10 round bout at the Texas Station Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Gesta, 24, hopes to win this fight and keep plowing away towards an eventual title shot.

It doesn’t look like his promoters at Top Rank are about to test Gesta against a real threat, because he’s still being matched against weak opposition despite nine years in the pro game. When you get a fighter that is STILL being pitted against 2nd tier opposition after nine years that sends out red flags that something isn’t right in his game. I don’t know that it’ll get any better for Gesta and Top Rank by keeping the training wheels on Gesta for too much longer.

The holes in Gesta’s game are ones that likely won’t improve by keeping him on 2nd tier opposition. Gesta lacks hand speed, height, reach, and defensive skills. Those size isn’t going to change for Gesta. He’ll he’ll always be a little guy that lacks speed and size. What they may or may not be able to change is his lack of defense. Since Gesta is still utterly hittable after nine years in the game, they need to find someone that can teach him how to block punches with his gloves, arms and shoulders instead of his head all the time.

Gesta will probably beat Barnett as long as he doesn’t move around too much or spear the short-armed Gesta from the outside. If Barnett boxes Gesta, he’ll have a great chance of beating him. It doesn’t matter that he’s second tier, Gesta is there to be beaten by any halfway decent fighter in the 2nd tier. I don’t see Gesta beating anyone from the first tier. He’s too limited to get past any actual good fighter.