Mercito Gesta & an Array of Matchroom Prospects Shine!
Mercito Gesta Rejuvenated his career Saturday night in Long Beach, California, with a 10-round Unanimous decision victory. Gesta entered as an 8-1 underdog and used the ring, boxed beautifully, and out-hustled the heavily favored JoJo Diaz over ten exciting rounds. He landed with crisp clean combinations and stayed off the ropes. As the larger, and slower Diaz tried valiantly to hunt his man down. At the end of 10 rounds, the issue was in doubt, the fight appeared close, but Diaz seemed to edge it out. Two of the judges agreed by wide scores of 99-91 and 98-92, and the third judge favored Diaz by a wide margin of 97-93. The vastly different scorecards reflect how close many of the rounds were.
In another fight that was incredibly difficult to score, Oscar Duarte stopped Alex Martin in a thrilling scrap. In a fight that was an intriguing contrast in styles, Martin worked well off the back foot and was landing in decent volume, especially early on. However, Duarte marched forward and landed better and harder shots, that broke Martin down and softened him up for a spectacular knockout in the 8th round. Durate scored with a pair of right hands that dropped Martin, who was barely able to make it to his feet. Duarte jumped on his wounded opponent and quickly finished the job to move his record to 25-1-1 (20).
On DAZN's earlier card in England, Eddie Hearn put on a card filled with prospects. The future looks bright for Hearn and Matchroom. In the main event, Cyrus Pattinson chopped away at the tree in a very tough and entertaining scrap with Chris Jenkins. In a very even fight, Jenkins began to fade while Pattinson remained strong, and seized control of the fight, and forced Jenkins's corner to throw in the towel in the ninth round.
Also on the card was 27-year-old silver medalist Pat McCormack who absolutely put on a boxing clinic. In what was supposed to be a real test with Italian fringe contender Dario Socci. It turned out to be a one-sided beatdown with a mercy stoppage by the referee, who called a halt to the bout with about a minute left. There was nothing not to like about McCrmack's performance. Scoring with right hands and making his opponent miss over and over again. He started walking the Italian down in the second half of the fight and scored with pinpoint counter hooks and rallied with crisp combinations till the ref was forced to waive the bout off!
Hopey Price did everything well as well. He controlled the range over a one-sided 10-round affair! Price did everything you would want in a long and rangy fighter. He controlled distance, kept his opponent at range, and snapped a quick jab. He mixed up head and body shots. He did everything in rolling to a wide points decision. Everything, except step on the gas and look to get an outmatched opponent out. Price looked sharp in improving his record to 10-0 (3).
