?Guess What? Gesta Can Win?
There?s a pretty good card taking place tonight at The Forum in Inglewood, CA on HBO Boxing After Dark (10:30pm ET/7:30pmPT). It is the same card that a certain fat bastard who looks like something out of Wayne?s World, basically compared to a ?shithole? card. But I digress.
It features the return of Lucas Matthysse (38-4, 35KOs) vs Tewa Kiram. (38-0 28KOs ) , a man 10 years younger who just may remind you of Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in many ways. In fact, brief scouting suggests he may distinctly malfunction ?The Machine?, ruining a chance to claim a bullshit ?regular? WBA welterweight title (that is such a fucking joke) that used to belong to WBC/WBA welterweight champion Keith ?One-Time? Thurman. More importantly, it would ruin a much desired rematch with Danny ?Swift? Garcia, who looked sensational underneath ?The One?: Mayweather/Canelo, where he exposed and sent the powerful Argentinean to places 3rd world in boxing psyche. That said? Matthysse should win, but don?t discount an upset. We?ve seen a Tsunami before.
Matthysse v Kiram pre fight night 27th January 2018
The real story tonight may be Mercito ?No Mercy? Gesta (31-1-2-17kos). Gesta, who is being impossibly overlooked against what I believe to be an overrated WBA lightweight champion in Jorge Linares, may win this fight. Sure, the flashy Las Vegas product by way of Venezuela can box and punches with volume, but he?s basically a less fundamentally sound Amir Khan with more resolve in his beard. Gesta, the Filipino warrior now based out of San Diego, is capable of unleashing a monster against Linares. I was ringside at The Forum in July 2017 and watched him beat up a hapless Martin Honorio. Obviously, Linares is no Honorio, but Gesta has prepared for someone much better. He is also aided by a great trainer in Freddie Roach who knows Linares extremely well. I truly believe he will show ?No Mercy? if the opportunity presents itself. He is a compact, technically sound striker of B+ proportion with a sensitivity chip for non-sense. Don?t think for one minute that Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya and right hand man Eric Gomez don?t know this. In fact, a Mikey Garcia V Mercito Gesta fight would look pretty damn good if something dramatic were to happen tonight.
Of course, Linares is the favorite on paper and should be. All signs point to a win leading to the possibility of getting a chance to be No Mas?d by one Vasyl Lomachenko. We?ll see. But this will be a fascinating show on HBO, as VP of Sports Programming Peter Nelson just may know a little more about boxing, than some overrated journalists who think they know everything.
