Mercito Gesta Batters Ty Barnett, Ninth Round TKO
Aug 3, 2012 • 9:54 AM ET
By Ryan Burton
Texas Station, Las Vegas - Lightweight contender Mercito Gesta (26-0-1, 14KOs) stopped Ty Barnett (20-3-1, 13KOs) in the ninth round. Barnett was wobbled at the end of the first and during a good portion of the fifth. In the ninth, a barrage of punches sent Barnett down. In the final five seconds of the same round, Barnett was dropped for a second time and this time his corner entered in to stop the fight.
Las Vegan by way of Culiacan, Mexico, Jesus Gutierrez (5-0) defeated James Burns (1-2) via a unanimous four round decision. The scores were 39-37 and 40-36 twice. Chants of "Chuy, Chuy" were heard early and often as the crowd cheered on the hometown fighter. Burns was over matched from the onset even though Gutierrez lacked the punching power to really hurt him. Gutierrez was rewarded for his aggressiveness even though he was sloppy at times.
Undefeated super bantamweight prospect Jessie Magdaleno (11-0, 8KO) put on a dazzling performance in front of his hometown fans at the Texas Station in Las Vegas. The southpaw's speed was on display early as his opponent Aldimar Santos (17-3, 9KO) had trouble adapting and became tentative very quickly.
Magdaleno started out using a left hook to the body to inflict damage to his opponent. Santos was trapped in the ropes at the end of the round and a right hook to the head sent him to the canvas as the bell sounded.
A vicious left hook at the end of a good exchange sent the Brazilian down once more midway through the second round. Santos rose to his feet again but not for long as a right hook sent him slumping to the ground at the 2:54 mark of the round. Ref Robert Byrd immediately waived off the contest.
Gabino Saenz (7-0-1, 5KO) kept his unbeaten record intact when he defeated Dwayne Wisdom via majority decision. Wisdom (2-5, 1KO) came out aggressive but quickly became cautious when he was stunned at the end of the first round. Saenz appeared to win easily even though one of the cards read 57-57. The other two cards were correctly scored 59-55.
