By Chris Williams: I’m betting that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has really high hopes for his unbeaten table fighter lightweight Mercito Gesta (26-0-1, 14 KO’s) after watching him dispatch a very average Ty Barnett (20-3-1, 13 KO’s) last Friday night in a 9th round TKO in Las Vegas, Nevada.

With cash cow fighter Manny Pacquiao getting up there in age at 33 and beginning to show signs of wear in his last couple of fights, Arum is going to need to find a replacement for the Filipino star that can seamlessly slide into the saddle and continue the gravy train in it’s forward run. Right now there’s two possibilities that can take over the helm for Pacquiao within Top Rank – the 24-year-old Gesta or the 29-year-old IBF/WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire. Gesta is obviously the younger fighter and probably has a lot more years left in the tank compared to Donaire. As far talent goes, neither of them are going to be able to move up in weight and win titles the way that Pacquiuao has done. I’ve been been impressed with the matchmaking that’s been done for Pacquiao for him to collect all these titles in different weight class, and I’m totally turned off by Pacquiao’s two catchweight titles.

I liken catchweights to a baseball player having the fences pulled forward so he can hit home runs easier and get in a record books. Those two titles that Pacquiao won should have asterisks next to them in the record books in my view because of the catchweight handicap that went with the fights. But as far Gesta and Donaire goes, I don’t see either of them able to win a whole mess of titles the way Pacquiao has done even if Arum does his absolute best with skillful matchmaking against the weakest of the champions in every division, as well as with catchweight handicaps helping the process.

Here’s the problems: Gesta’s arms are short and he’s incredibly hittable. Although Gesta is the same height as Miguel Cotto at 5’7″, his arms look a lot shorter and he doesn’t hit as hard. Gesta is like an arm puncher, and that’s going to get in the way of him winning titles unless Arum carefully waits and puts Gesta in fights for vacant titles or against someone perceived as a wink link among the champions.

Donaire has probably topped out with his wins at super bantamweight. He beat a guy that was recently knocked out in Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. for the vacant WBO title, and I still don’t understand how Vazquez Jr. was able to fight for a vacant title when he was recently knocked out. That was like handing a title to Donaire. And Donaire’s recent win over IBF champ Jeffrey Mathebula was a situation where he beat a paper champion. You’ll notice that Donaire isn’t being matched against the two best fighters at super bantamweight – Abner Mares and Guillero Rigondeaux.

Arum is pretty skillful and I believe he can keep Gesta unbeaten for many year with his careful matchmaking. This may cause a lot of boxing fans to climb on board and see Gesta as the next Pacquiao, but it’s going to look awfully strange if Arum never matches Gesta up againt the best fighters at lightweight or light welterweight just like it’s starting to look odd that Arum isn’t matching Donaire up against Rigondeaux or Mares.

There’s a large Filipino community that could potentially jump on board the Gesta express once Pacquiao has retired from boxing, and with Arum’s skillful matchmaking, we may not see Gesta built up to look a lot better than he actually is. Look at last night’s fight. The average boxing fan doesn’t have a clue that Barnett was a second tier fighter that had no chance of ever beating a fighter like Gesta to begin with.