By: Sean Crose
Rising super middleweight Diego Pacheco looked to impress Saturday night when he battled Maciej Sulecki in a scheduled 12 rounder in Pacheco’s home turf of Southern California. At 21-0, Pacheco was clearly the main attraction. The 32-2 Sulecki, however, was looking to take advantage of a relatively quiet boxing weekend by scoring a huge upset in front of DAZN cameras.
Sulecki was aggressive early behind a high guard. Pacheco responded with an effective – and very long – jab. Although Sulecki started off aggressively again in the second, Pacheco was able to dominate the round by picking away at his man with his accurate jab. By the third it appeared that Pacheco was able to neutralize Sulecki’s attack by virtue of putting his punches together with speed and accuracy. By round’s end, however, Sulecki was exchanging with Pacheco.
The fourth round was high octane and well fought by both men. It was a close, exciting chapter. The fifth was close, like the fourth, until Pacheco hurt his foe. As the seconds wore down, it looked like Pacheco might actually be able to stop his man before the bell. It wasn’t meant to be, but there was no doubt Pacheco had dome some real damage. A thunderous body shot in the first minute of the sixth put Sulecki down – and out. It was the first time in his career that Sulecki had been stopped.
“I feel great,” Pacheco said afterward. “He came to fight; he came to win; but like I said he never ran into anyone like me before.” Although it’s unlikely he’ll be able to face current super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez anytime soon, Pacheco said he’s willing to take on “anyone in the top ten.” At the moment, however, the young Californian was clearly savoring his most recent win. “I hope you guys enjoyed it,” he said to the crowd.