Tag Archives: Mercito Gesta

Fight Between Ryan Garcia & Gervonta Davis Officially Confirmed

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It’s official… Ryan Garcia will battle Gervonta Davis.

The 136-pound catchweight fight between 24-year-old Mexican American boxer and Davis is now finalized.

Ryan GarciaBoth boxers announced on social media that they’ll meet April 22 in Las Vegas.

Finalizing the broadcast agreement between Showtime and DAZN was all that was left, and that’s now been done. The fight will be broadcast on Showtime PPV.

The fight had been planned for April 15, but was pushed back one week to allow more time for promotion as negotiations dragged out, sources said.

The fight between the two stars is perhaps the biggest commercial event boxing can deliver. A dispute over the rematch clause had threatened to derail the fight, but that issue was resolved earlier this month after PBC agreed that Golden Boy would serve as the lead promoter for a second bout if Garcia wins.

Only Davis can exercise the rematch clause in the event he loses, per sources.

Typically, boxers have 30 days to activate their right to an immediate return bout.

Davis (28-0, 26 KOs) will earn slightly more for the first fight, according to sources, and is the betting favorite. Davis defeated Hector Luis Garcia last month via ninth-round TKO to keep the Ryan Garcia matchup intact.

Earlier this month, Davis pleaded guilty to four counts stemming from a hit-and-run crash in November 2020 in Baltimore that left four people injured, including a pregnant woman. Davis’ sentencing is set for May 5, which means any potential punishment won’t interfere with his ability to compete in April.

Davis was arraigned Thursday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in connection with a Dec. 27 misdemeanor domestic violence charge of battery causing bodily harm. His next hearing is set for March 31, per Broward County court records. Davis pleaded not guilty after allegedly hitting the mother of his 1-year-old daughter with a “closed-hand type slap,” according to police, who said she suffered a small abrasion on the inside of her upper lip. She asked the court to dismiss charges in an affidavit filed Jan. 24.

Both Davis and Garcia announced on Instagram in mid-November that they would meet in a long-awaited fight in 2023, but it took months to reach an agreement on terms.

Davis, a 28-year-old from Baltimore, is one of the biggest needle-movers in boxing. “Tank” has 4.2 million Instagram followers and routinely fights before a host of celebrities. ESPN’s No. 3 lightweight, Davis won a junior lightweight title with a seventh-round KO of Jose Pedraza in 2017.

Before he defeated Hector Luis Garcia, Davis scored wins over Isaac Cruz and Rolly Romero in 135-pound bouts.

Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) is a star, too, with over 9 million followers on Instagram.

Regarded for his lightning-quick hands, he scored a career-best win in January 2021 after he survived a knockdown to stop Luke Campbell in the seventh round. He didn’t fight for the rest of 2021 after he withdrew from a bout with Javier Fortuna to address his mental health followed by wrist surgery that scrapped a match with Joseph Diaz Jr. Garcia, who fights out of Southern California, returned last year with wins over Emmanuel Tagoe and  Fortuna at 140 pounds. Garcia, who formerly campaigned at 135 pounds, vowed to remain at 140 but will drop four pounds for the catchweight bout.

Garcia had been set to fight Mercito Gesta in January, but bypassed the planned tuneup bout to head directly into the high-stakes showdown with Davis.

Vergil Ortiz Officially Set to Fight Samuel Vargas in Golden Boy’s First Post-Coronavirus Fight Card

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Vergil Ortiz is officially ready to rumble…

As previously expected, the 22-year-old highly regarded Mexican American welterweight will face veteran Samuel Vargas on July 24 in Golden Boy‘s first fight card since the coronavirus pandemic put a halt to boxing events across the world in mid-March.

Vergil Ortiz Jr.

The card will take place at the Fantasy Springs Casino Resortin Indio, California.

“We’re just excited, happy to be back with our fighters,” said Eric Gomez, president of Golden Boy Promotions. 

“Especially a guy like Vergil who was scheduled to fight before the shutdown. He was 10 days out from fighting, so I’m just happy he gets to fight again, and we’re back at it.”

For the time being, Golden Boy’s cards in California will be held without an audience.

Ortiz (15-0, 15 KOs) is considered one of boxing’s best young fighters. The Grand Prairie, Texas native has stopped everyone he has faced thus far as a professional. In 2019, Ortiz stopped Mauricio Herrera in three rounds, and then Antonio Orozco in six.

Ortiz and Vargas were originally scheduled to clash on March 28 at The Forumin Inglewood, California, before that card was canceled.

“I’m very thankful and excited to be headlining the first Golden Boy event after the quarantine,” said Ortiz, who has been training with Robert Garcia in Riverside for the past few weeks. “I’m happy that it’s still with the same opponent, so basically we’re picking up where we left off. It’s going to be a tough fight, and it’ll be a great way to kick off the year for me.”

Ortiz is facing a seasoned veteran in Vargas (31-5-2, 14 KOs), who has faced Amir Khan, Luis Collazo, Danny Garcia and Errol Spence over the course of his career.

“I think that everything happens for a reason,” said Vargas, who has been in Las Vegas in recent weeks, preparing for this bout. “I think this time off benefited me. I’m ready to upset the world. I believe I can come out with the win. The world is a weird place right now. The show will be different. There will be no fans, but I have no doubt I’m going to win.”

As Golden Boy officials began to put this card together, they found a rather limited pool of options to draw from, in terms of selecting boxers.

“There’s a lot of guys that just weren’t ready,” Gomez said. “They hadn’t been to the gym because [gyms] were closed, they didn’t train, do road work, sparring or anything. Now it’s a little better, but we’re not in the clear yet.”

The co-feature scheduled for July 24 is a 10-round lightweight contest between Hector Tanajara (19-0, 5 KOs) and Mercito Gesta (32-3-3, 17 KOs). Other fights include an eight-round middleweight bout between Shane Mosley Jr. (15-3, 9 KOs) and Jeremy Ramos (11-8, 2 KOs), a women’s junior flyweight fight between Seniesa Estrada (18-0, 7 KOs) and Jacky Calvo(12-5-2, 1 KO), and a clash between prospects Hector Valdez and Evan Sanchez.

There’s no indication when spectators will be allowed back into any sporting events, and from Golden Boy’s perspective, the hope at this point is just to try to get the first few cards off the ground smoothly.

“It’s hard to say. It’s scary. You’ve seen the numbers, they’ve been rising again,” Gomez said. “There have been surges in Florida, here in California. I don’t know what the governor is going to decide. I just hope we don’t get shut down again.”

Vázquez Routs Gesta to Maintain His Lightweight World Title

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The fifth time’s still a charm for Miguel Ángel Vázquez…

The 25-year-old Mexican boxer has easily retained his lightweight world title for the fifth time, scoring a landslide decision win against Mercito Gesta on Saturday.

Miguel Ángel Vázquez

The fight  (26-1-1, 14 KOs) in a fight that was frustrating to watch and elicited booing from the crowd.

Vazquez (32-3, 13 KOs) won 119-109, 118-110, 117-111 in a fight that many called “frustrating to watch,” one that even elicited booing from the crowd.

ESPN.com had it for Vazquez by shutout, 120-108. Vazquez is considered an effective boxer, but that really doesn’t make crowd-pleasing fights, and he was at it again against Gesta (26-1-1, 14 KOs). He spent long spans of the fight circling and picking his shots one at a time.

“The game plan was to box and keep him on the outside,” Vazquez said. “It worked perfectly.”

Gesta couldn’t get inside to do what he wanted, which was to try to rough up Vazquez. It led to plenty of booing from the crowd.

“He’s awkward,” Gesta said. “I never got a rhythm going in the fight.”