Acee: Local Boxer Gesta Gets His Title Shot
By Kevin Acee
Photo Credit: K.C. Alfred
Source Doc: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/dec/05/acee-local-boxer-gesta-gets-his-title-shot/
Anecito Gesta brought up his eldest son the way he had been brought up — fighting.
The best recollection of both father and son is that Mercito Gesta was 7 years old when his dad first took him to the street looking for someone to beat the boy.
“He would offer them money if they could beat me,” Mercito said. “Big kids, older than me. Bigger.”
So, yes, it’s been a long time coming, Saturday night’s fight in Las Vegas for the IBF lightweight title — longer even than the 26 professional bouts Gesta has toiled through without a loss.
He is getting his first chance at a championship belt on Saturday against Miguel Vasquez, on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand, 10 years after his first professional fight in the Philippines and almost two decades after his training began.
“He always wanted me to be the best, to be good at this sport,” Mercito said of his father. “Sometimes, I was like, it is too much. But then I know it is for me.”
In broken English, Anecito explains that fighting on the street for sport is common in the Philippines. He laughs when asked if he ever stepped in to stop a beating when Mercito was pitted against bigger kids.
“Someone stops it sometimes,” he said, glancing at his wife, Mercedes. “I did not stop. No one stopped when I was (a boy) and I was crying.”
Earlier this year, Anecito came to the United States and for his son’s past two fights has joined trainer Vince Parra in Mercito’s training.
That preparation was raised to new heights, in many ways, for this fight. Team Gesta left Spring Valley and spent the entirety of November in Big Bear, renting a house on a small hill near a ski resort and working out at the nearby gym owned by renowned trainer Abel Sanchez.
“Thin air, that’s the first reason,” Mercito said. “The second is the (no) distractions, far from friends. Friend are good, but this time I cannot go there. I need to be focused right now … I’ve been boxing since I was 15, now I’m 25. Man, that’s long. I’ve been waiting, and it’s a title fight right now. I’m more focused right now.
“We decide to put our training to the next level. High altitude, it’s harder to train here. The sparring is harder, we do more rounds. My dad is here. He helps me.”
To that end, one mid-November day, Mercito welcomed visitors into the home shortly before he and his father embarked on a morning run around a loop edging a golf course. That day’s run would be just three miles, because breakfast and a nap would be followed by 14 rounds of sparring at noon.
As he spoke following his run, Mercito sipped a 20-ounce glass of juice — celery, cucumber, carrots, apple, watermelon with the rinds on — right in the juicer, bottoms up.
“My mom says juice is good for the body,” he said with a shrug. “There’s nothing I can do.”
The final (and most active) of Mercito’s four sparring partners was 49-year-old Anecito, a former Muay Thai champion in the Philippines and most certainly still in fighting shape. In addition to the two professionals Parra brought in, Mercito also went two rounds with his younger brother, Anecito Jr. Mercedes shouted instruction from the ropes.
Mercito’s first professional fights in the Philippines earned him just a few hundred dollars. He is about to jump to a new level of earnings.
“For a long time being a pro boxer, this time has come,” he said. “This is the reality. I need to focus in this one. This is not just for me, but also for my family. To help. I’m just so excited right now. It will change everything. It will change my future, my parents’ (future). I can’t do this without them. This title will really change everything.”
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