Pinoy Gesta tames Mexico’s ‘El Tigre’

Mercito “No Mercy” Gesta of Labogon, Mandaue City put up a world-class performance in his debut under Top Rank Promotions with a third round knockout win over Jorge “El Tigre” Pimentel of Mexico at the at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California Sunday (Philippine Time).

The southpaw Gesta, who improved to 22-0-1 (win-loss-draw) with 12 knockout victories, had too much speed and power as he knocked down Pimentel once in each round.

The third knockdown courtesy of a right uppercut prompted referee Raul Caiz, Jr. to stop the bout at the 2:23 mark. Pimentel suffered his third straight loss to drop to 22-12-0 with 15 KOs.

The 23-year-old Gesta has scored abbreviated wins in his last five fights. Promoter Bob Arum was impressed with Gesta’s latest performances and spoke of more big fights for the Filipino.

Gesta trained at the Wild Card Gym in California and held his own sparring with WBA light welterweight champ Amir Khan.

Gesta made San Diego, California his second home since he started his campaign in the United States in 2007.

In the card’s main event, Brandon Rios (28-0-0, 21 KOs) retained his WBA lightweight title with a third round TKO win over Urbano Antillon (28-3-0, 20 KOs).