Gesta faces Mexican in big US card today

BLUE chip lightweight contender Mercito “No Mercy” Gesta of Mandaue City is all set to make his debut under the banner of Top Rank Promotions when he fights Jorge Pimentel of Mexico in a feature fight on the undercard of Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios vs. Urbano Antillon WBA lightweight championship battle today at The Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

The unbeaten Gesta (21W-0L-1D, 11 KOs) weighed 137lb while Pimentel tipped the scales at 135lb during the official weigh-in traditionally held one day before the fight.

The 23-year-old Filipino southpaw has been training at the Wild Card Gym of Freddie Roach and was reported to have held his own sparring with WBA light welterweight champ Amir Khan.

Pimentel (23W-11L, 17 KOs), who sports the ring moniker El Tigre, is a former Mexican light welterweight champ and will try to bounce back from two successive losses.

Gesta was one of the boxers given a citation during the 29th Cebu Sports Awards for his brilliant campaign in the United States that  included winning the North American Boxing Organization (NABO) Youth lightweight crown with a fourth-round stoppage over Oscar Meza of Mexico.

In the card’s main event between California natives, Rios (135lb), the WBA lightweight champ, will make the first defense of his crown against Antillon (134.75lb).