Is Diego Pacheco Ready For Canelo?

November 9, 2024

3 weeks

Diego Pacheco has been tipped to take the super middleweight division by storm as we look at his rise.

The 23-year-old Mexican hopes to follow in the footsteps of the greats, namely Canelo Alvarez, who dominates his weight class. Alvarez is a former Undisputed Super Middleweight Champion, as Pacheco hopes to reach that level. Pacheco has a good amateur career, with over 75 fights. He also has eight National Championships. Pacheco signed with Matchroom Boxing, slowly working his way up the ranks.

He has already fought in the U.S., Mexico, and the U.K. His pro debut came against Luis Carlos Gonzalez. Pacheco announced himself with a first-round stoppage. He also managed to fight on the undercard of Andy Ruiz Jr. vs Anthony Joshua II. He knocked out a very experienced fighter in Selemani Saidi. That rise took him to 22-0, with 18 knockouts by name. He has six knockouts in his last seven fights, stopping Maciej Sulecki in his latest bout.

Pacheco’s Big Fight

He has recently been mentioned as a possible opponent for Jaime Munguia. Oscar De La Hoya suggested a 5v5 against Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn, with Pacheco on the list. Munguia is a former WBO Junior Middleweight Champion, showing he is at an elite level. He has also been in the ring with Canelo. While he lost a unanimous decision, Muguia got off the canvas to make it to the final bell. Pacheco knows a win over Munguia takes him closer to a title shot. Pacheco is ranked in the top five within the WBA, IBF, and WBO rankings. He is also ranked number one for the WBO belt, making him a strong contender to face Canelo.

Canelo has shown a tendency to take fights that generate a lot of money without taking the most amount of risk. Since Pacheco is Mexican, the fight could sell on Cinco De Mayo and Mexican Independence Day. Canelo showed that when the Munguia fight sold over 500,000 PPVs on Cinco De Mayo, despite Canelo receiving backlash for it. Canelo’s recent fight against Edgar Berlanga, a Puerto Rican, sold around 650,000 PPVs, generating a live gate of $17 million on Mexican Independence Weekend. Based on Hearn’s prior comments, Pacheco will be ready to face Canelo.

Hearn On Pacheco

“We don’t want to rush him and get it wrong, but then when you see performances like that. the call is coming in 2025 when the WBO sent me that beautiful email to say Diego Pacheco has been mandated to fight for a world title. We got to be ready. He’s ready, and he’ll give everything. But with Diego, we actually have time with that fight to close the levels.

“That’s why I call out Munguia and Mbilli, and I call out those guys because, in my opinion, those are the guys that bridge the gap from where we are now to Canelo Alvarez. When you jump to Canelo Alvarez, it’s always a jump, but you don’t want a jump to be too big. One thing that we’ve got is time, but we’ll be led by Jose [Benavidez Sr], Diego, and the team. We’ll put our ideas together about the next opponent. I think we’re all on the same page,” Hearn said