Diego Pacheco meets Maciej Sulecki tonight in their 12-round super middleweight headliner in a Matchroom-promoted show at the Dignity Health Sports Park, Carson, Los Angeles. The event will be shown live on DAZN, beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT. This fight will show whether the the 23-year-old Pacheco (21-0, 17 KOs) is ready to be stepped up against higher competition, like Christian Mbilli or Jaime Munguia.
(Credit: Melina Pizano/Matchroom)
Boxing News 24 will give live updates and results below of tonight’s action on DAZN.
In the chief support fight, super featherweight contender Eduardo ‘Sugar’ Nunez (28-1 28 KOs) stopped former world title challenger Miguel Marriaga (31-8 26 KOs) by a sixth-round stoppage in a war. ‘Sugar’ Nunez dropped the 37-year-old Marriaga twice in the fight, once in the fourth and a final time in the sixth.
In the final seconds of the sixth, Nunez sent Marriaga to the canvas with a liver shot. Marriaga went down on a delayed reaction. However, Marriaga got back up and made it through the last few seconds. After the round ended, the referee halted the fight.
The Colombian Marriaga was landing a lot of hard shots to the head and body of the 27-year-old Nunez throughout the contest, surprisingly showing better power than him. If not for Nunez’s excellent chin, he might have been knocked out because he was getting nailed cleanly repeatedly by Marriaga due to his focusing on his offense and being wreckless on defense.
Super bantamweight Arturo Cardenas (15-0-1 8 KOs) defeated Jesus Arechiga (21-2 15 KOs) by a questionable ten-round split decision to retain his Continental Americas title. The scores were 96-94 for Arechiga, 98-92, and 96-94 for Cardenas.
The wide 8-2 score for Cardenas didn’t make much sense because it was a very close fight. Arechiga gave Cardenas a lot of problems with his body shots and got the better of the action in the second half of the battle.
Cruiserweight Chev Clarke (10-0, 7 KOs) won a tougher-than-expected ten-round majority decision over Efetobor Apochi (12-3, 12 KOs). The scores were 95-95, 98-92, and 97-93. This writer had it 95-95 even.
Clarke fought well in the first couple of rounds but then wilted from the pressure and power of Apochi. In the eighth, Clarke returned to hurt Apochi with a right hand. However, Apochi, 36, recovered well and controlled the last 20 seconds of the round.
In the tenth, Clarke was hurt by Apochi’s right hand and spent much of the last two minutes holding and moving. He looked in bad shape at the end.
Nunez vs Marriaga on Undercard
On the undercard, super featherweight Eduardo ‘Sugar’ Nunez (27-1, 27 KOs) will be looking to steal the show tonight, fighting the heavy-handed Miguel Marriaga (31-7, 25 KOs) in a ten-round fight. This fight might outdo the main event, as Nunez is exciting to watch and will be looking for a knockout.
Sulecki (32-2, 12 KOs) is the underdog and has very little chance of winning this fight unless he can hurt Pacheco with one of his straight right hands. Pacheco isn’t the hardest fighter to hit, especially when fighting aggressively, which he always does. David Benavidez’s fighting style has rubbed off on Pacheco because he throws sustained combinations the way he does, sometimes putting him at risk.
Promoter Eddie Hearn believes the 6’4″ Pacheco is a future world champion. Still, there are many doubts about whether he’ll be able to capture a belt while Canelo Alvarez, Mbilli, Edgar Berlanga, and Munguia are hanging around. Hearn is fast-tracking Pacheco, trying to get him to a fight against Canelo as quickly as possible for obvious reasons.
Pacheco won’t see the money he would get fighting Canelo facing anyone else in his career, and he needs to get that fight before the Mexican star steps away from the game.
“I can outbox my opponents to frustrate them and get them to open up; it’s just a matter of how the fight goes. I’m ready for whatever he brings, and I believe I’ll get the knockout.
