Rios vs Abril Results: Mercito Gesta Stops Oscar Cuero in Eight

Filipino lightweight prospect Mercito Gesta scored a stoppage win over a game but overmatched Oscar Cuero to kick off tonight's Top Rank pay-per-view in Las Vegas, putting Cuero down in the seventh round and then again in the eighth, at which point referee Robert Byrd stopped the bout.

Gesta (25-0-1, 13 KO) wasn't particularly impressive in the fight, but did mostly dominate the bout, though Cuero (15-8, 12 KO) did better than the commentary team gave him credit for, arguably winning a couple of rounds. Bad Left Hook had Gesta, 24, up 68-63 at the time of stoppage.

Our live coverage of Rios vs Abril and Marquez vs Fedchenko continues here.

Gesta is going to have his eyes opened, big-time, when he steps up the competition, or at least that would seem to be the conventional wisdom right now. The young man fights cocky, and while he's compared to Manny Pacquiao because he's a Filipino southpaw, he more resembles another in a long line of Roy Jones Jr wannabes, relying on reflexes that aren't as good as he seems to believe they are. Cuero had plenty of success in this one, even though he never was in any danger of winning the fight.

Mike Alvarado faces Mauricio Herrera in the next bout from Las Vegas, so join our live thread.