You just have to take it from the father.
When Anecito Gesta said his son Mercito would win today’s fight against WBA world lightweight champion Jorge “El Nino De Oro” Linares, you better believe him.
The young Gesta and Linares tangle in today’s dual world title main event card promoted by Golden Boy Promotions at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Anecito, who’s been with Mercito since the start of the latter’s boxing career in 2003 told Cebu Daily News that there’s been a lot of positive changes in his son especially after the latter lost first world title bout in 2012 against Miguel Vasquez for the IBF world lightweight title.
“He’s changed a lot since 2012. His only mistake during that time was that he trained for the wrong game plan. But now he is more matured and more motivated and his skills has improved a lot because I know Freddie Roach and Marvin Zamudio trained him well,”said Anecito.
In yesterday’s official weigh-in, Gesta tipped the scales at 134.8lbs while Linares who will be defending the title for the third time, weighed in at 135lbs. The 30-year old Gesta of San Remigio town, north Cebu sports a 31-win, 1-loss, 2-draw record with 17 knockouts while Linares totes a 43-3-0, 27KOs mark.
“He will win this fight by unanimous decision or a knockout. I can’t predict what round but I know that he will win by knockout because I can sense complacency on Linares’ side. He’s treating my son as a complete underdog and that will be Mercito’s main advantage,” said Anecito.
“Freddie and Marvin trained Mercito to fight cautiously and make sure Linares will not get the exact distance to take advantage of his reach. His conditioning with Justin Fortune was also very impressive so I am confident my son can fight for 12 rounds.”
Roach and Fortune are the trainers of eight-division world champion Senator Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao.
The other main event pits former interim WBC super lightweight champion Lucas “La Maquina” Matthysse (38-4, 35 KOs) of Argentina against undefeated Thai superstar Tewa Kiram (38-0, 28 KOs) for the vacant WBA welterweight strap.
Matthyse weighed in at 147lbs while Kiram was 146.4lbs.
Meanwhile, Sanman Boxing Gym’s Romero Duno (15-1-0,13KOs) and his opponent Yardley Armenta Cruz (21-9-0,12KOs) weighed 135lbs and 133.6lbs respectively.
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