Mercito has to fight with no mercy
For a while back in 2012 Mercito “No Mercy” Gesta (31-1, 17 KOs) hogged the headlines as a promising young fighter with the potential to be another boxing world champion.
But he lost via decision to Miguel Vasquez in a lightweight championship bout in December of that year. He has continued fighting sporadically and has not been as active as he would have liked. His contract with Top Rank was also not renewed, in part due to injuries he suffered.
Since then he had made a steady but slow climb back towards title contention (5 wins, 1 draw) and today, he will get another chance to fulfill his dream of becoming a world champion.
But that’s a very tall order, literally speaking as standing in his way, will be the formidable Jorge Linares.
LINARES. Gesta is listed at 5’7” while Linares is 5’8” but the weigh-in pictures clearly showed the Venezuelan to be at least 2-3 inches taller than the Mandaueborn Gesta.
Linares (43-3, 27 KOs) isn’t exactly a household name yet and is also eager to make his mark and climb that ladder into the upper tier of elite fighters. He became a world champion in 2015 when he stopped Kevin Mitchell to win the WBC belt.
Linares is a boxer-puncher who likes to throw big combinations. He’s not particularly fast but he’s durable and seems to have excellent cardio.
UNDERDOG. In 2015, Gesta signed up with Golden Boy Promotions and has been under the tutelage of the legendary Freddie Roach.
Under the avuncular Roach’s guidance, Gesta’s career has seen a resurgence and for this fight, Roach is confident that his southpaw ward can spring an upset.
Nicknamed “El Nino de Oro” or Golden Boy, reportedly because his Japanese promoter is a good friend of the Golden Boy himself, Oscar dela Hoya, Linares is heavily favored to win this fight and Gesta is reportedly a 50-1 underdog.
Considering the odds, this fight seems to be suspiciously tailor-made for Linares to make himself look good against a credible opponent, and potentially catapult himself into bigger fights. Linares himself was reportedly looking ahead to a unification bout with Mikey Garcia
KEYS. Well, they better not take Mercito lightly because Roach is the best trainer suit- able for his style.
Roach has always been an offensive-minded trainer. His forte is not defense. When he got Manny Pacquiao he further honed him into an accurate and deadly punching machine. Same with Miguel Cotto. His best work did not come with boxers like Oscar de la Hoya and Amir Khan.
Being a puncher himself when he was still an active fighter, Roach works his brilliant best when he is crafting an attack.
Gesta may not have the speed and power of Pacquiao but he has decent boxing skills and power to pull off the upset. I’m hoping Roach can weave his magic one more time and produce another Pinoy world champion.
The best approach for Gesta would be to fight like Miguel Cotto. He needs to pressure Linares and launch a ferocious body attack. In his loss to Antonio de Marco, Linares eventually wilted after he suffered a cut even though he was winning the first half of the fight.
It can be done. Mercito just has to execute Roach’s game-plan and be true to his ring moniker.
LAST ROUND. It’s on the ever-lovely Juvy Empleo of Dapa, Surigao del Norte who is celebrating her birthday this week. Cheers!
Under the avuncular Roach’s guidance, Gesta’s career has seen a resurgence and for this fight, Roach is confident that his southpaw ward can spring an upset.