GESTA GETS A SHOT AT THE IBF LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 06 Aug 2012
Mercito ?No Mercy? Gesta who kept his undefeated streak going with a dominating performance that ended with a 9th round TKO at 2:59 of the round over American Ty Barnett at the Texas Station Casino in Las Vegas last Saturday is being given a shot at IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez of Mexico later this year.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told the Manila Standard ?I want him (Gesta) to fight Miguel Vazquez as soon as possible. I talked to Vince Parra (his co-manager and trainer) and they are going to get a nutritionist to make sure he can do 135 pounds and if they can I will make that fight in October-November.?
Parra, in a separate interview with the Standard said ?we are excited at the prospect of fighting Vazquez but there are small issues with the weight but that is something that can be addressed. We know we can make the weight but we want to make sure he is going to make it without a problem.?
Parra admitted that ?it?s been a couple of years since he (Gesta) made the 135 limit officially. He?s grown up since then but we can go out and make some changes in his diet and make sure that he?s going to be a 100 percent at 135. We don?t want to come in and not make weight and since we finally have this opportunity we don?t want to go in less than a hundred percent.?
The 25 year old Vazquez is 5?10? tall and will enjoy a three inch height advantage over Gesta. The Mexican has a record of 31-3 with 13 knockouts and won the vacant IBF title with a unanimous twelve round decision over Ji Hoon Kim on August 14, 2010.
Before the title shot Vazquez scored a ten round split decision over previously undefeated Colombian Breidis Prescott who is best known for a sensational 1st round knockout of Amir Khan, the one time world light welterweight champion.
In his last fight Vazquez scored a ten round shutout win over Nigeria?s tough 33 year old Daniel Attah.
Parra said ?I like the fight (against Vazquez). He?s the most difficult, awkward guy out there at 135 pounds and has been avoided. He?s long, he?s lanky but doesn?t do anything special but does what he does very well. He keeps you off balance and uses his reach. But we feel confident Mercito can get past that and with some fine tuning and making sure that his nutrition is right and he?s nice and strong we feel confident that we can beat Vazquez either by decision or stoppage.?
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