By Chris Williams: Unbeaten lightweight/light welterweight contender Mercito Gesta (26-0-1, 14 KO’s) remained unbeaten on Friday night stopping Ty Barnett (20-3-1, 13 KO’s) in the 9th round at the Texas Station Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The end came after Gesta knocked Barnett down a couple of times in the 9th. The official time of the stoppage was 2:59 of the 9th.

Barnett was basically fighting Gesta to a stand still until the 7th when the flat-footed and slow Gesta started to land his power shots to take control of the fight. Barnett, a 2nd tier fighter, didn’t have the power, speed or work rate to compete with Gesta once the fight went into the deeper rounds.

All in all, it wasn’t the type of performance from Gesta that would suggest that he could compete against the top lightweights for light welterweights in the division. I know his promoter Bob Arum has kicked around the idea of putting Gesta in with WBO light welterweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez but that would be cruel to Gesta. He doesn’t have the game to compete with a veteran like Marquez and he’d likely get badly hurt if Arum decides to make that fight. Instead of putting Gesta in with a champion that will only beat him, Arum needs to try putting Gesta in with a contender for a change instead of throwing him to the wolves. Gesta would be better off working his way up to a title shot instead of being thrown in with someone and hoping he wins. He won’t. I’d like to see Gesta face someone like Henry Lundy, Gavin Rees or Sergio Thompson next rather than watching Gesta get blown out by one of the champions.

In other action on the card, unbeaten super bantamweight Jessie Magdaleno (11-0, 8 KO’s) dominated Aldimar Santos (16-3, 9 KO’s) beating him a 2nd round TKO. Santos was knocked down by some heavy shots thrown by Magdaleno late in the 1st round. In the 2nd round, Santos hit the deck again after getting tagged with some really nice shots from Magdaleno. The referee Robert Byrd then halted the fight at 2:54 of the round.

Bantamweight Gabino Saenz beat Dwayne Wisdom by a six round decision. The final judges’ scores were 57-57, 59-55 and 59-55.