Gesta-Barnett on August 3rd: Another easy fight for Mercito

By Boxing News - 06/30/2012 - Comments

Image: Gesta-Barnett on August 3rd: Another easy fight for MercitoBy Chris Williams: Like a lot of people you’re probably wondering when Top Rank will finally take the training wheels off their pampered unbeaten lightweight contender Mercito Gesta (25-0, 13 KO’s) and finally put him in with someone with a fighting chance against him that will show whether the guy has the talent to make it in the business.

Well, you’re not going to see Gesta matched up with a quality opponent for his next fight, because he’s taking on someone named Ty Barnett (20-2-1, 13 KO’s) on August 3rd in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Texas Station Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is yet another mismatch for the 24-year-old Gesta, and I’m wondering how long they’re going to let the padding of his record go on before he faces his first quality opponent.

At this pace, we may see Gesta, #6 WBA, #12 IBF, built up to the near 50 fight stage before he finally is put in with a good opponent. The thing of it is I don’t see any improvement from fight to fight with this guy. Sure, Gesta’s ranking improves, but what good is it if he’s not improving? I suppose Bob Arum can keep putting Gesta in record padding fights until he cashes out with him in a nice in house fight against one of his Top Rank stable fighters like Brandon Rios or Manny Pacquiao, but he’ll lose so badly that it’ll be sickening.

I think it’s better to match Gesta now with good fighter in a sink or swim fashion so that Arum can cut his losses well ahead of time instead of keeping a guy under contract that will likely not pan out for him. I’ve seen enough of Gesta’s fights to give me a clear impression of where he’s going in the future. I saw it clear enough when Gesta won a controversial 10 round unanimous decision over a very, very average Manuel Perez in September of last year. I had Perez winning the fight by four rounds, and yet Gesta won the fight. If you thought the Brandon Rios-Richard Abril fight was controversial, take a look at Gesta vs. Perez. That gives no meaning to the word controversial.

As bad as Gesta looks, I think he’ll have no problems beating Barnett in August. This is an easy fight that any halfway decent fighter wins by 1st or 2nd round knockout.



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