Terence Crawford is angling for a major super-middleweight bout, but it’s his Omaha, Nebraska, stablemate Steven Nelson who’s poised to participate in the division’s first significant bout of 2025.
An official connected to the deal told BoxingScene on Saturday that Nelson 20-0 (16 KOs) is expected to be announced this week as the opponent for the top-ranked WBO contender Diego Pacheco 22-0 (18 KOs). The DAZN-streamed bout will be staged in Las Vegas on January 25.
Nelson is trained by Crawford’s cornerman, the 2023 trainer of the year Brian “BoMac” McIntyre.
“[Nelson] is strong, short and stocky, but Diego is good with distance so the plan is to get [Nelson] hurt and finish him – it’s a good test,” said an official from Pacheco’s camp who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing has yet to formally announce the bout.
The turn to Nelson, 36, comes after Pacheco, 23, was previously in talks with the contender Trevor McCumby – who lost to the former 168lbs champion Caleb Plant in September – and with the WBC-WBA number-one contender Christian Mbilli.
The IBF wanted Mbilli and Pacheco to fight to establish the number-one contender for its new super-middleweight champion William Scull.
An official tied to Mbilli told BoxingScene on Friday that Mbilli would not be ready to fight Pacheco on January 25 but that a meeting could potentially happen later in 2025.
Yet with all the moving parts of the super-middleweight division, it’s difficult to project where things will go from here, knowing that three-belt champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will need an opponent for his traditional Cinco de Mayo bout, which in 2025 will be on May 3.
The four-division and reigning WBA junior-middleweight champion Crawford longs for a title shot at the four-division champion Alvarez, but the Mexican has been resistant to the idea, and also of working with Crawford’s ally, Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh.
As the top-ranked contender in two sanctioning bodies, Mbilli is in a solid position for Alvarez, but he lacks serious name recognition.
The Los Angeles-born Pacheco also has work to do to enhance his brand. His bout on January 25 will be his second DAZN main event after his defeat of Maciej Sulecki by sixth-round knockout on August 31 in Carson, California.
Pacheco is trained by Jose Benavidez Snr, who is also in the corner of his son, David Benavidez, the WBC interim light-heavyweight champion who meets the WBA “regular” champion David Morrell in a February 1 Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view main event at Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.
While training his son in Miami, as Pacheco works with four Benavidez-aligned trainers in Washington, Benavidez Snr is expected to move camp to Vegas right after Christmas, and to bring Pacheco in from the Seattle area.
Expected to join them will be Benavidez’s son, the former title challenger Jose Benavidez Jnr, to prepare for a February 1 undercard bout, along with the lightweight Omar Salcido 20-1 (14 KOs), who is expected to be announced as the opponent of the Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz 4-0 (2 KOs), also on January 25.
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