“Just win this one, you can look good next time.” Those words, or some variation on them, have been trotted out in countless corners over the years when a boxer who’s on his way to a boring or unimpressive victory just needs to get to the finish line without anything dramatic happening.
It’s a fine short-term strategic approach. And it’s not bad long-term, either – provided, ya know, you look good next time.
Diego Pacheco is rapidly running out of next times.
The undefeated West Coast super middleweight’s 2025 has been a master class in how to win without impressing.
He entered the year with a record of 22-0 (18 KOs), riding high off a brutal sixth-round left hook to the liver knockout of veteran Maciej Sulecki. He’s finishing the year 25-0 with the same 18 KOs.
Three fights. Thirty-six rounds.
One knockdown suffered and none delivered.
Plenty of boos heard.
First came the battle of unbeatens against Steven Nelson, a stablemate of Terence Crawford, in Vegas in January. For the first 10 rounds, Pacheco was mostly clinical and mostly dominant. For the last two, he was mostly dominated as he held off a hard-charging Nelson. It wasn’t a win for the scrapbooks, but it was 117-111 on all three cards and he was taking on an opponent who’d never lost before. It was all quite forgivable.
Look good next time, right?
In July, Pacheco faced Trevor McCumby in Frisco, Texas. The comments underneath BoxingScene’s post-fight recap tell the tale:
“What a dud. Pacheco is not going to be gaining fans like that. Dumb idea to be boring on the biggest stage that you have ever fought on. He could have and should have taken more chances.”
“Bad clash of styles. It was a dud, no guy ever in any danger.”
“Awful fight, decided to switch over to the PBC broadcast after a few dreadful rounds.”
Pacheco won by wide margins – 120-108 and 119-109 twice – but it was a stinker from start to finish, and now he desperately needed to restore his reputation.
Enter Kevin Lele Sadjo this past Saturday in Stockton, California. Sadjo, a compact, come-forward pressure fighter without great defense, had potentially the perfect style for Pacheco to shine against. The Frenchman also had a glistening 26-0 (23 KOs) record built almost exclusively against nobodies. The pre-fight odds suggested Pacheco would, more likely than not, return to his KO ways. It was everything you could want in a get-right spot, other than the fact that Sadjo wasn’t going to be a pushover.
Instead Pacheco won ugly again.
With an eight-inch height advantage and a nine-inch reach advantage, Pacheco spent the early stages executing disciplined, dull boxing from distance. The boos started in Round 4.
In the fifth, Sadjo landed his first noteworthy punch, a right hand over the top, and Pacheco held – a tactic he would adopt increasingly over the ensuing rounds. There was more booing from the restless Cali crowd in the sixth.
It got a lot worse in the eighth round. Sadjo clipped Pacheco with a left hook, and down went the highly touted young fighter for the first time in his career.
He got up and shook it off, but more holding ensued over the next few rounds – during which it became increasingly clear Pacheco doesn’t have much of an inside game.
But a switch flipped late in the 10th round. Pacheco opened up and scored with a series of combinations, perhaps stealing what had been a Sadjo round. He dug in and fought in the 11th, and fought well, exciting the crowd. Pacheco attacked the body and won the 12th.
It was precisely the finish he needed – in terms of reminding fight fans that he’s capable of something more exciting than his previous 33-plus rounds had mostly suggested. It also averted a possible upset defeat had it been Sadjo who swept the late rounds. Pacheco prevailed by scores of 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112.
The momentum shift from late in Round 10 onward can partially be attributed to the advantages of youth. Pacheco is still just 24, whereas Sadjo is 35.
Reverse the numbers in Pacheco’s age, and you get the age of the fighter who came up short in Saturday night’s other noteworthy main event in California.
Badou Jack is 42 rather than 24, and it showed in the cruiserweight titleholder’s rematch with Noel Mikaelyan in Los Angeles. Jack and Mikaelyan were essentially fighting to a draw through the first seven rounds, but Jack didn’t win a single round on any official scorecard the rest of the way. The 35-year-old Mikaelyan — the same age as Sadjo — had something in the tank Jack didn’t and won by scores of 116-110 (twice) and 115-111.
Soon after the final bell sounded, commentator and ex-fighter Shawn Porter said simply, “That’s what we call getting old overnight.”
For Pacheco, the benefits of youth include finding an extra gear late in a fight that won’t always be there, as well as having plenty of time still to grow as a fighter.
Sure, he’s failed to dazzle time after time, and the hype that he could be a future superstar is getting harder to buy with each subsequent uninspired victory. But he isn’t necessarily a finished product. Pacheco can still improve in ways that leave us all looking back with a chuckle at that bumpy 2025 run in which he just kept going the distance and couldn’t find his groove.
But there’s also cause right now for serious concern. You can only win ugly so many times before that night comes along when you do not win.
Once can be an anomaly.
Twice is a trend.
Three times is maybe just who you are.
I’m reminded to a degree of Adrien Broner. Periodically during his rise, he tried to tell us who he was – when he struggled to a disputed decision over Daniel Ponce de Leon in 2011, when he didn’t try to make weight against Vicente Escobedo in 2012, when he barely got by heavy underdog Paulie Malignaggi in 2013.
Broner was telling everyone to expect the bottom to drop out, but most of us didn’t fully recognize the signs until it did drop out against Marcos Maidana. After that, though the paychecks kept coming for a while, Broner never tallied another meaningful victory.
I don’t know that Pacheco is going to lose his next fight or quickly spiral into “remember that guy?” territory. But it sure feels like a defeat is coming soon – maybe as soon as he steps up another half-level.
Forget about being competitive against a Crawford or a Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. At various points in each of his last three fights, Pacheco looked like he’d be in over his head against Christian Mbilli or Lester Martinez.
He’s now calling out Jaime Munguia. If Pacheco is who we previously thought he was, that’s a statement win. If Pacheco is who he seems lately to be trying to tell us he is, Munguia could be his Maidana.
For now, there’s a bright side to look on, if we choose to. Pacheco reversed his momentum toward the end of the Sadjo fight and preserved interest in what he does next. Faced with adversity, he got all up in adversity’s face and punched back.
Perhaps the knockdown against Sadjo is as low as he’ll go for a while.
But he’s going to have to look damned good next time to convince anyone of it.
Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with nearly 30 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.
