Filipino lightweight boxer Mercito “No Mercy” Gesta victorious over Ty Barnett via 9th rd TKO

        They say offense wins games and defense wins championships. Ty Barnett was long on defense and short on offense in a losing effort to Mercito Gesta in ESPN’s Friday Night Fight’s main event. Instead, it was Gesta who used a balanced attack to wear down Barnett before scoring a TKO victory with a mere second to spare in the ninth round.

       After having to literally walk the elusive Barnett down in the latter half of the fight, Gesta (26-0-1, 14 KOs) showed he meant business in the ninth. The accumulation of power shots to the face and mid-section paid dividends and a hard left hook caught Barnett flush and sent him to the canvas just as the ten-second signal was given. In no hurry to go to the tenth and final round, Gesta pounced, flattening Barnett with a jab that ended the fight.

     And though it appeared that the final punch that tattooed Barnett’s (19-3-1, 12 KOs) face was landed after the bell, Barnett was clearly losing the bout and was in no condition to fight on.

      
      Looking ahead, Broner, a former super featherweight champion, is set to make a move to the lightweight division and Gesta feels he is the right fighter to welcome him to the weight class.

       “I want Adrien Broner next,” Gesta said in an interview with Boxing Scene. “He is a good fighter. He is one of the best, and I want to fight the best. So why not?”

       Broner, with a record of 24 wins and 20 KOs, patterns his boxing style after another unbeaten American, Floyd Mayweather Jr. He lost his super featherweight title on the scales after failing to make the weight against Vicente Escobedo last July 21.

        He knocked out the unheralded Escobedo in the fifth round. “He says he’s the best,” Gesta said of Broner. “So he should fight me.” A fight against Broner is unlike for Gesta, who is promoted by Top Rank, as Broner is under Golden Boy Promotions. When informed of this, Gesta said that he is willing to fight anybody. “I want to fight for a title. It doesn’t matter who it’s against,” he said. Speaking with Dennis Guillermo of Examiner, Gesta said he is willing to fight Miguel Vazquez or Antonio DiMarco.

      “I’m ready for that belt and I think my promoters are going to give me a title fight around October,” Gesta said. Gesta’s record improved to 26 wins with one draw, with 14 wins coming by knockout.