Boxing: Gesta recovers from knockdown to defeat Mexican foe

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino fighter Mercito Gesta picked up a hard-fought unanimous decision victory over Mexican boxer Miguel Angel Mendoza on the undercard of Lucas Matthysse vs. Viktor Postol on Sunday, October 4 (October 3 in US) at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

The 3 judges at ringside scored the ten-round lightweight clash in favor of Gesta with 97-92, 97-92 and 96-93 marks.

Mendoza scored a knockdown in the second round, where Gesta appeared to lose his balance while his opponent was stepping on his foot.

Even though Gesta protested it, referee Jerry Cantu remained unfazed and still ruled it as a knockdown.

“My foot got dropped on his leg. The referee scored it as a knockdown. There’s nothing I can do,” Gesta stated in an interview with Radio Rahim of MaxBoxing.com.

Mendoza did his best to wear down the 27-year-old native of Mandaue City, Cebu throughout the bout with haymakers, but his punch output decreased as the fight progressed into the later rounds.

Gesta was able to effectively throw counter shots to the face while landing more uppercuts to the head of Mendoza.

With the decision win over Mendoza, Gesta improves his professional record to 29-1-2 (16 knockouts) and enters the winner’s column once again after suffering a split draw against Carlos Molina this past April.

On the other hand, Mendoza heads back to losing territory as he downgrades his standing to 22-7-2 (21 KOs).

“He caught me off guard. Most of the time I am putting my hand up. This kind of opponent, based on his knockouts, he lunges like hard and swings hard. Of course, people see that as I get hit, but actually I move. You don’t want to stay there and take that punches,” Gesta said of Mendoza.

In the main event, Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) captured the vacant WBC junior welterweight title by scoring an upset against Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs) as he knocked out the Argentinian pugilist in the tenth round.

Postol outboxed and outpunched Matthysse before finishing him off with a right hand to the eye to compel referee Jack Reiss to count him out at the 2:58 mark of round ten. – Rappler.com