In an anti-climatic fight, #1 ranked WBO super middleweight contender Diego Pacheco (22-0, 19 KOs) delivered a sixth-round knockout of journeyman Maciej Sulecko (32-3, 12 KOs) on Saturday night in their clash on DAZN at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
(Credit: Melina Pizano/Matchroom)
Calculated Aggression and Tactical Brilliance
The 6’4″ Pacheco boxed early on, using his jab and right hands to control the action against the 35-year-old Sulecki. However, there was a lot of two-way traffic between the fighters due to Sulecki catching Pacheco with nice right hands, left hooks and a powerful jab.
Pacheco has never been great defensively, but he made his problems worse by fighting aggressively, and Sulecki used his experience to take advantage of the openings to connect.
If Sulecki had more power, he could have done some damage, but he’s never been a huge puncher. That’s obviously one of the factors for why he was selected for this fight. Matchroom wasn’t ready to throw the 23-year-old Pacheco into the fire just yet in his early career.
Turning Up the Heat
As the contest wore on, Pacheco gained confidence, knowing that he didn’t have much to worry about from Sulecki in the power department. In the sixth round, Pacheco hurt Sulecki with a right hand late. He looked out of sorts at the end of the round, and it was clear that he was fading.
The turning point came in the fifth. Pacheco knew that Sulecki was tired and had no power to hurt once. That’s when Pacheco started throwing leather. Late in the round, he had Sulecki dazed for a second. The Polish fighter clinched and made it out of the round by landing some hard shots to Pacheco’s head.
At the start of the sixth, Pacheco threw a right hand followed by a left to the body that sent Sulecki to the canvas. He rolled on his side and then to his back and was counted out.
Unfortunately for Pacheco, most of the attention in tonight’s card came from the co-feature bout between Eduardo ‘Sugar’ Nunez in his battle against Miguel Marriaga.
So by the time the main event came on between Pacheco and the 35-year-old Sulecki, it would have taken a special performance from the 23-year-old to outdo what fans had seen in the chief support bout. Pacheco didn’t have the style of the dance partner for him to outshine ‘Sugar’ Nunez.
In the chief support fight, ‘Sugar’ Nunez (28-1, 28 KOs) stopped Marriaga (31-8, 26 KOs) in the sixth round in an entertaining fight. Nunez knocked Marriaga down with a body shot in the sixth. After the round ended, the fight was stopped.
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