A new entry in the Canelo Alvarez derby: Diego Pacheco

Given the multiple of millions of dollars a guy like Edgar Berlanga is earning to fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez next month, the angling to land a Canelo fight is fervent.

Diego Pacheco, 23, will throw his hat in the ring Saturday night on DAZN when the unbeaten super middleweight meets former middleweight title contender Maciej Sulecki of Poland in Carson, California.

Possessing a 79-inch reach while standing 6-foot-4, Pacheco (21-0, 17 KOs) has the opportunity to become the first to stop Sulecki (32-2, 12 KOs) and step ahead of the Canelo “next” contenders.

That cast includes the WBC’s top-ranked super middleweight contender, Christian Mbilli, possible undisputed light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol or the winner of the looming IBF super middleweight title fight between William Scull and Russia’s Vladimir Shishkin.

Pacheco is currently the No. 1 WBO contender, while being ranked fourth by the WBC and IBF.

“Sulecki has been in with [former middleweight champions] Demetrius Andrade and Daniel Jacobs and never been stopped. … He’s strong and durable,” ProBox TV analyst Chris Algieri said on Monday’s episode of “Top Stories.” “But Pacheco is tall, long, developing quickly … big hands, big head, quickly maturing.

“I can see Canelo picking him because he’s so young, like Felix Trinidad did with Fernando Vargas: ‘Get ‘em young, before he develops into what he’s going to be.’”

Pacheco is trained by Jose Benavidez Sr., the father-trainer of unbeaten former super middleweight champion David Benavidez, who was forced to leave the 168-pound division because of Alvarez’s disinterest in fighting the naturally bigger foe.

On “Top Stories,” Alvarez antagonist Paulie Malignaggi said he expects Alvarez to similarly avoid Pacheco if he produces a convincing Saturday victory.

“If he looks somewhat beatable, shows deficiencies, then you’re getting into Canelo’s wheelhouse,” Malignaggi said. “You can see Canelo has been riding easy since [his 2022 loss in the] Bivol fight.”

Malignaggi says he’s impressed with Pacheco’s development and projects that he “can keep growing; he has all the tools.”

Landing his own DAZN main event is testament to that, but Pacheco remains too green at this hour to compete with Alvarez, or even Mbilli, according to “Top Stories” analyst Timothy Bradley Jr.

In two or more years, that will be a different story.

“Pacheco, in a couple years, will be real dangerous,” Algieri said.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.