ONE of the brightest lights in Eddie Hearn’s global Matchroom boxing stable takes a significant step towards an inevitable world title assault back home in California this weekend.

Diego Pacheco signed with Hearn when he was just a teenager after amassing eight national titles with the dream of becoming a world champion. Now, he’s ready to realise it.

The LA-born Mexican-American turned pro in December 2018 and has quietly but confidently built up a formidable 21-0 record, featuring 17 wins by knockout.

BIG HITTER

On Saturday night, the now 23-year-old takes on another former world title challenger in the form of tough Pole Maciej Sulecki.

Yet despite surrendering a dozen years and a dozen fights experience, few expect Pacheco to run out of ideas now he’s within touching distance of the belts.

In a super-middleweight division cast in the shadow of Canelo Alvarez, Pacheco is Hearn’s champion-in-waiting once the Mexican icon finally hangs up his gloves.

Already ranked inside the top 10, Pacheco has shown a lot of maturity for his age and an ability to finish fights both early and late and on the biggest stages.

With fan bases on both sides of the Mexican-American border, he’s featured up and down the west coast, but Hearn has also taken him on the road to, with notable performances in Saudi Arabia and here in the UK.

Averaging three fights per year, Pacheco has picked up fringe US titles in the last 18 months, and even nailed his first former world ranked opponent.

In November, he suffered a series of cuts from wayward headbutts distributed by Argentina’s Marcelo Coceres. But weathered the storm to become the first man ever to stop ‘El Terrible’ in the ninth.

Coceres was on his feet when he stopped by Billy Joe Saunders in a world title fight in 2019. Pacheco forced him to quit after landing a signature right uppercut.

POLE-AXED

Sulecki, 35, has also never been stopped and both losses on his 34-fight ledger came against world champions.

Daniel Jacobs outboxed him in 2018 in a middleweight world title eliminator before capturing gold, but the Pole bounced back into contention himself after winning a classic against Gabe Rosado.

Sulecki challenged Demetrius Andrade for his version of the world crown in the summer of 2019, but was given a boxing lesson to close the chapter on career his 160lb.

He’s gone 4-0 since against winnable opposition. But in Pacheco he faces a young man on the way up the mountain rather than on his way down.

Standing six-four, Pacheco is a huge super-middleweight and utilises that length and youthful speed to intelligently soften up opponents behind his jab before whipping in power shots to the body and head.

Sulecki will represent the best scalp on his CV to date. But make no mistake, this is the Diego Pacheco show and every step so far has been the right one.

Expect the pace to be hot from the start but short-lived with Pacheco landing big enough and significantly enough to see the fight waved off before the judge’s cards are called for.

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