January 27 on HBO
Golden Boy Promotions
Jorge Linares (43-3) vs. Mercito Gesta (31-1-2)- If you follow my work then you already know that Linares is one of my favorite current boxers. I love the way Linares places his punches together from top to bottom using every angle imaginable.
The southpaw hard punching Gesta will need to stay close to Linares to take away some of the comfortable distance that Linares enjoys working from to slice up his opponents.
I’m certain that legendary trainer Freddie Roach will advise Gesta to pressure Linares from post to post to stop Linares from picking his spots.
I feel that Gesta is awkward enough and his pop is hard enough to give Linares more and more trouble the longer the bout lasts.
So if I’m Linares, I would use my footwork and speedy hard jab to keep Gesta away and I would not look to waste punches to conserve my energy in case I get dragged into deep waters.
I’m expecting to see Linares win a 8 rounds to 4 unanimous decision by beating Gesta to the punch by using throw away punches to throw Gestas’ rhythm and balance off and nailing Gesta consistently with blitzing right cross shots.
Lucas Matthysse (38-4) vs. Tewa Kiram(38-0)- I haven’t seen much of Kiram but from what I’ve seen of him, Kiram throws a hard right hand behind a long pawing jab.
As for the man they call “La Máquina”(The Machine), Matthysse is not your typical stalking puncher, Matthysse is a skillful puncher that employs a blinding hard jab and feints to get to his prey.
And with Matthysse now being trained by Joel Diaz, I’m expecting to see a few additions to Máquinas’ already heavy arsenal.
This should be a fun shootout while it lasts, I’m expecting to see Máquina Matthysse batter Kirams’ body and will then stop Kiram with a vicious right over hand bomb in the 7th round.