Given the a number of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} a man like Edgar Berlanga is incomes to battle Saul “Canelo” Alvarez subsequent month, the angling to land a Canelo battle is fervent.
Diego Pacheco, 23, will throw his hat within the ring Saturday evening on DAZN when the unbeaten tremendous middleweight meets former middleweight title contender Maciej Sulecki of Poland in Carson, California.
Possessing a 79-inch attain whereas standing 6-foot-4, Pacheco (21-0, 17 KOs) has the chance to turn out to be the primary to cease Sulecki (32-2, 12 KOs) and step forward of the Canelo “subsequent” contenders.
That forged contains the WBC’s top-ranked tremendous middleweight contender, Christian Mbilli, doable undisputed gentle heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol or the winner of the looming IBF tremendous middleweight title battle between William Scull and Russia’s Vladimir Shishkin.
Pacheco is at present the No. 1 WBO contender, whereas being ranked fourth by the WBC and IBF.
“Sulecki has been in with [former middleweight champions] Demetrius Andrade and Daniel Jacobs and by no means been stopped. … He’s robust and sturdy,” ProBox TV analyst Chris Algieri mentioned on Monday’s episode of “Prime Tales.” “However Pacheco is tall, lengthy, growing shortly … large palms, large head, shortly maturing.
“I can see Canelo selecting him as a result of he’s so younger, like Felix Trinidad did with Fernando Vargas: ‘Get ‘em younger, earlier than he develops into what he’s going to be.’”
Pacheco is educated by Jose Benavidez Sr., the father-trainer of unbeaten former tremendous middleweight champion David Benavidez, who was pressured to depart the 168-pound division due to Alvarez’s disinterest in combating the naturally larger foe.
On “Prime Tales,” Alvarez antagonist Paulie Malignaggi mentioned he expects Alvarez to equally keep away from Pacheco if he produces a convincing Saturday victory.
“If he appears considerably beatable, exhibits deficiencies, then you definitely’re moving into Canelo’s wheelhouse,” Malignaggi mentioned. “You’ll be able to see Canelo has been driving straightforward since [his 2022 loss in the] Bivol battle.”
Malignaggi says he’s impressed with Pacheco’s growth and tasks that he “can continue to grow; he has all of the instruments.”
Touchdown his personal DAZN important occasion is testomony to that, however Pacheco stays too inexperienced at this hour to compete with Alvarez, and even Mbilli, in accordance with “Prime Tales” analyst Timothy Bradley Jr.
In two or extra years, that will probably be a distinct story.
“Pacheco, in a pair years, will probably be actual harmful,” Algieri mentioned.
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. author and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has lined boxing for the reason that early 2000s, first on the Los Angeles Occasions after which at The Athletic and USA At this time. He gained the Boxing Writers’ Affiliation of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for profession excellence.
