By Chris Williams: Shane Mosley was really excited about what he saw of lightweight contender Mercito Gesta (26-0-1, 14 KO’s) last night in his mismatch against B level fighter Ty Barnett (20-3-1, 13 KO’s) at the Texas Station Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Gesta knocked Barnett out with a beautiful left hand thrown after the bell sounded ending the 9th round. Ignoring the fact that the knockout shouldn’t have counted in the first place, Mosley was really excited about what he saw of the 24-year-old Gesta, saying “He could be the next world champion.”

Mosley also had some criticism for Gesta, saying “Gesta should fight the whole three minutes of every round.”

I didn’t think Gesta’s work rate was an issue in this particular fight, but definitely that’s been a big problem for him in his past bouts. Gesta didn’t really have to worry much against Barnett because he didn’t throw a lot of punches. Gesta tends to just cover when he’s facing an active opponent that throws a ton of shots. Last night, Gesta didn’t have to worry, so he was able to throw punches without really worrying. When Gesta is facing guys that just stand in front of without throwing shots, like Barnett, he doesn’t look that bad to be honest.

However, you could still see some problems that will hurt Gesta when he eventually is matched against his first quality opponent. He’s got short arms and he’s incredibly easy to hit. We saw Barnett hitting Gesta every time he threw anything his way. Gesta still can’t move his head to avoid shots and he’s unable to block them with his gloves or arms either. Against someone that’s good, Gesta is going to take a beating.

Gesta’s promoter Bob Arum should start matching Gesta against bottom tier opposition instead of the soft guys he’s been feeding him all these years because he’s not going to get much out of facing lesser opposition like last night’s opponent.

I don’t see Gesta as ever being a world champion, but I think he’ll make a good little gatekeeper type fighter. If Arum is smart he’ll look to feed him to Manny Pacquiao so that he can have another in house Top Rank. In doing so, Arum can give Gesta a big payday and he’d suffer his first loss against a well known opponent instead of matching Gesta against one of the world champions and seeing Gesta get beaten by one of them.