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Mercito Gesta knocks down Ivan Valle Photo: Ed Dela Vega / Philboxing.com |
I spoke to Mercito "No Mercy" Gesta Monday night after his sensational 2nd round TKO victory over Ivan Valle last Friday at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel in San Diego, California to talk about his win and what's in store for his promising boxing career. Gesta also talked about his encounter with Manny Pacquiao in San Diego where the pound for pound king made an appearance at a basketball charity event dubbed "Get ready to RumBall".
Check out the translated interview transcript below and click this link to listen to the actual interview.
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dSource - Good evening Mercito.
Mercito Gesta - Hey, how are you? Good evening!
dSource - Congratulations man, that was a great win for you last Friday.
Mercito Gesta - Thanks man. Thank you.
dSource - Can you describe to us how you feel after that win?
Mercito Gesta - Great! I feel great because I was able to show a good performance and all of our hard work and training was worth it. I feel really good that the fight ended up the way it did.
dSource - Did you expect to beat him that easily?
Mercito Gesta - No. I've seen his fights before and he's had fights that he went down but he would get back up and still go the distance. I just thought that if I ever did knock him down that he would get back up and still continue on for a while, but with my fight, they stopped it in the second round after he went down. I guess that was it.
dSource - Yea man, and your killer instinct is very impressive. When you saw that you hurt him it really looked like you were ready to go for the kill. Can you describe to us what goes through your head when you see that you've hurt your opponent?
Mercito Gesta - My thinking is that when you hurt your opponent, you should go for the kill and try to finish the fight because if you let him off the hook and they recover, you'll never know what might happen- they might get a lucky punch in and you could end up getting hurt. I always keep it in mind every time I hurt my opponent that I have to take advantage of it and finish it. It would be a shame to waste your opportunity to be able to close a fight when your opponent is groggy or have the fight stopped by the referee. That's your chance there already, so I always try to take advantage of it.
dSource - Describe to us the fight atmosphere at the venue. It seemed that you had the most fans that night.
Mercito Gesta - (laughing) Yea, there were a lot of Filipinos there. We promoted the fight to the Filipino community... there was a Fil-Am festival, and we really promoted it so a lot of Filipinos were aware of my fight and knew that I was fighting that day. I felt great to have that much support from people and fans and it really helped me out a lot with my performance. I didn't want to let all of them down, especially since this is my hometown here in San Diego.
dSource- What do you feel about all these people giving you respect and compliments now, not just in the Filipino community, but also with our friends in the media here in the US?
Mercito Gesta - I'm happy that they recognize my efforts and I can prove to them that even when they start lining up these bigger named opponents that I'm also capable of beating them and that I will do everything to do so.
dSource - What did your promoter say about your future? Will they pit you against bigger named guys next year?
Mercito Gesta - Next year they are planning to get me a big fight and my dream of getting that championship fight. That's the real fight to me. When I win that, then I can say that I actually made it. I just have to keep on performing well.
dSource - Are there any names that they are targeting for you?
Mercito Gesta - They said they might get Rocky Juarez. They are going to try to match him up with me, and if I beat him then maybe I can fight the top guys in my division like Katsidis or Marquez.
dSource - That would be a good fight between you and Juarez since he's a skilled veteran.
Mercito Gesta - I yeah I know that will be a difficult fight because I've seen Juarez style. His technique is really good and that will be a good fight. I will really need proper training for that because he's one the people I look up to. I like his style and his moves, so I really need the best training for that one because he is a difficult fight.
dSource - Manny was there in San Diego, were you able to see him?
Mercito Gesta - Yes, I saw him.
dSource- What did he tell you?
Mecito Gesta - I said hi to him and we just said what's up to each other. There were a lot of people too so we didn't really get to talk that much, but he congratulated me and told me he heard about my 2nd round victory and that he was impressed.
Dennis "dSource" Guillermo is a freelance sports writer. You can contact him via e-mail at dennisguillermo2@yahoo.com.
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