Diego Pacheco and Maciej Sulecki successfully weighed in Friday for their 12-round head-to-head tonight at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The event starts tonight at (7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT).
(Credit: Melina Pizano/Matchroom)
The favorite, Pacheco (21-0, 17 KOs) weighed in at 168 pounds, which looks like he’s already close to his fighting weight for tonight. Sulecki (32-2, 12 KOs) came in at 167.4 pounds. It’s a fight Pacheco, 23, needs to keep moving toward a world title shot.
Hearn’s vision for Pacheco
Promoter Eddie Hearn already has several names in mind that he would like Pacheco, 6’4″, to face alongside to help prepare him for a world title shot. That will depend on how good Pacheco looks tonight. Hearn says he wants to match up against Christian Mbilli, Jaime Munguia or Erik Banzanyin next time.
In other weights, super featherweight Eduardo Nunez (26-1, 26 KOs) weighed in at 133 pounds, and his opponent, veteran Miguel Marriaga, weighed in at 131.8.
“It’s going to be a great night of boxing. For Pacheco, it’s been great to see him rise from a 17-year-old to #1 in the world, which he is at the WBO,” Eddie Hearn tells KO Artist Sport. “It’s the perfect kind of fight to show where he really is.
“I think Sulecki is extremely tough. I think he’s a world-class fighter, but we expect Diego to do a good job on him. If he does, he will be ordered to fight the winner of Canelo vs. Berlanga. He has to because of his position.”
Pacheco needs an up-and-coming opponent who is ranked in the top 10 and can help push him for what he faces when he challenges Canelo. Sulecki is not good enough to get Pacheco ready for Canelo.
“I’m not saying he’s ready for it. I’m not calling it out. It’s going to come, and when it comes, you have to be ready because you can’t lose that opportunity. That’s why we need a minimum of two or three more fights, maybe for that Canelo or whoever it is opportunity.
“After you beat Sulecki, you look at you look at Mbilli, or you look at a Munguia. Once you fight those guys, there’s no in between. You dive in for that Canelo event. Pacheco still makes 168 pretty well, which is a huge asset. I am very proud of him. I feel he did a good job.
“He really invested his time in the sport. I think working with (trainer) Jose Benavidez was huge for him as well, and I’m interested and excited to see where he goes. We can’t control it. Only he can control it now, but what we can do is make the right decisions and take the right steps at the right time, and I think we’ve done that with his career. I think we did a good job, and now it’s up to him,” Hearn said.
