By Chris Williams: If you look around the internet you’ll notice a lot of fuss is being made about unbeaten light welterweight Mercito Gesta (23-0-1, 12 KO’s). Despite the 23-year-old Gesta having fought basically 2nd and 3rd tier fighters, a lot of boxing fans are backing Gesta as the next Manny Pacquiao. I don’t see any similarities between Gesta and Pacquiao other than them both being around 5’7″ and Filipino.

That’s where the similarities end. Gesta isn’t fast on his feet and his hand speed isn’t all that great either. I see him as another Mark Melligen type. Gesta looked awful in his last fight against Jorge Pimental (20-12, 17 KO’s) last Saturday night, taking right hand after right to the head without coming close to blocking any of them.

If you thought Erislandy Lara was landing cleanly against Paul Williams then sit down and watch Gesta vs. the 2nd tier Pimental. Gesta was getting ragged badly until he stopped Pimental in the third. It’s nice that Gesta got the knockout, but that’s expected given who he was fighting. But if I was to judge Gesta from that performance, I can’t give him a high rating. He looks very ordinary, lacks speed, doesn’t move his feet by jumping around the way that Pacquiao used to do, and is so hittable it’s not even funny.

I don’t see anything about Gesta as being the next Pacquiao. Like I said, I see Gesta as being the next Melligen. He’s too slow and he’s going to have problems unless he takes off some weight and tries to fight at lightweight or super featherweight. I think super featherweight would be perfect for Gesta because he wouldn’t have to worry about bigger fighters clocking him. He’s too open and will blasted apart by good lightweights like Brandon Rios and hard punchers in the light welterweight division like Lucas Matthysse and Marcos Maidana.