Super middleweight contender Diego Pacheco (20-0, 17 KOs) defeated a shot-looking journeyman Marcelo Conceres (32-6-1, 18 KOs) by a ninth round knockout on Saturday night at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California.
The lanky 6’4″ Pacheco landed a right uppercut that put the 32-year-old Argentinian Coceres down. He kind of slid down the ropes and then took a knee and was counted out. It looked like Coceres could have gotten back up but chose not to.
Coceres was trapped against the ropes at the eighth round, and took some big shots from Pacheco. At the end of the round, Coceres looked worn out and defeated, sitting on his stool. His right cheek was swollen, and it was obvious that wasn’t going to make it through the ninth round.
Overall, Coceres wasn’t the fighter that came close to beating Billy Joe Saunders in 2019. He’s a lot slower, and his accuracy tonight was gone. He was missing with everything, and he had no inside game. If Coceres could fight on the inside, he would have been a nightmare for the lanky stork-like Pacheco.
Despite winning, Pacheco didn’t look all that impressive. He was mostly jabbing, backing up when the very slow-looking Coceres would come forward. When Coceres would come close, Pacheco would tie him up.
The results of tonight’s live action on Pacheco vs. Coceres card will be shown below.
- Erika Cruz (17-2, 3 KOs) used relentless pressure & a high volume work rate to defeat WBA female super bantamweight champion Mayerlin Rivas (17-5-3, 11 KOs) by a ten round majority decision. The scores were 98-92, 97-93 and 95-95. Rivas, 35, fought well in the early rounds, moving & countering well. However, in the second half, Cruz took control with her pressure, trapping Rivas against the ropes repeatedly, throwing nonstop punches that clearly bothered her. In rounds eight through ten, Rivas wasn’t let hands go enough to stay in the fight. Earlier in the contest, Rivas was cut under his eight eye from a clash of head. Rivas failed to stay in the center of the ring and throw. This enabled Cruz to trap her against the ropes, and unload with punches. Although a lot of the shots from Cruz were missing, there was so many of them that. The judges had to be impressed with her sheer aggression and the fact that she was doing most of the throwing.
- Bantamweight Jonathan Rodriguez (17-1, 7 KOs) destroyed former WBA super flyweight champion Kal Yafai (27-2, 15 KOs) by a surprising first round knockout in an upset. The 34-year-old Yafai was dropped twice by Rodriguez. Referee Thomas Taylor stopped the massacre at 2:17 of the round after Rodriguez knocked Yafai off balance, sending him up against the ropes. After the fight, Yafai made it clear that he was retiring. Yafai had been out of the ring for a year and didn’t look like the same guy he’d been from 2016 to 2019.
- In a disturbing mismatch, lightweight prospect Marc Castro (11-0, 8 KOs) stopped an overmatched Gonzalo Fuenzalida (12-3, 3 KOs) in the seventh round of a scheduled ten round fight. The 24-year-old trapped the Chilean Fuenzalida against the ropes and unloaded with a barrage of shots, resulting in the referee Ray Corona stepping in and halting the fight. Most of the shots that Castro threw in the final flurry missed, but given that there was nothing coming back from Fuenzalida, the referee had no choice but to top the fight. The time of the stoppage was at 2:31 of round seven. The speed difference between Castro and the painfully slow Fuenzalida was huge. Castro was so much faster, and he was hitting the slower fighter at will with punches from the first round. Interestingly, Castro chose not to attack the soft-looking body of Fuenzalida, even though he’d been knocked out with a body shot in his previous fight. It appeared that Castro wanted a highlight reel knockout to the head, so he focused his attention there and ignored his corner’s advice to target the body of his opponent. In the seventh, Castrol seemed to get a little carried away with himself and shouldered Fuenzalida to the canvas in a football move. This fight could have been stopped earlier, as Castro was hitting Fuenzalida with some wicked headshots in the fourth and sixth rounds, nailing him with flurries of shots. On the negative side. Castro didn’t show much defense, as he was hit with some big shots in the fight. He didn’t show the kind of talent that suggests that he would do well against some of the killers in the 135-lb division, like Raymond Muratalla, Vasily Lomachenko, or Edwin De Los Santos. Those fighters would have feasted on Castro.
Diego Pacheco (19-0, 16 KOs) takes another step forward with his career tonight, taking on the grizzled veteran Marcelo Conceres (32-5-1, 18 KOs) in the ten-round main event at super middleweight at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California. (Photo credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom). The card begins at 8:00 p.m. ET on DAZN.
On the undercard, WBA female super bantamweight champion Mayerlin Rivas (17-4-3, 11 KO) will defend against Erika Cruz (16-2, 3 KO) in a ten-round fight.
Boxing tonight on DAZN @ 8:00 p.m. ET
– Diego Pacheco vs. Marcelo Coceres
– Mayerlin Rivas vs. Erika Cruz
– Kal Yafai vs. Jonathan Rodriguez
– Marc Castro vs. Gonzalo Fuenzalida
Prediction for Pacheco vs. Coceres
The Los Angeles native, Pacheco, is facing the first real test of his young five-year professional career going up against the 32-year-old Argentinian Cocernes. Pacheco will win a hard-fought ten-round unanimous decision.
Coceres isn’t someone who will fold like Pacheco’s previous 19 tomato cans that have been fed to him, and he could lose if he doesn’t defend his chin. We saw Eddie Hearn fighter Edgar Berlanga get dropped in the ninth round by Conceres in their fight in 2021.
“Diego Pacheco, one of the rising stars at 168 lbs, he takes on one of his most accomplished opponents today in Marcelo Coceres. That’s a fight that you can watch [tonight],” said Chris Mannix on the DAZN Boxing channel.
“I call Diego Pacheco a rising star because I don’t know how to classify him yet. He’s 22, so he fits the demographic as a prospect, but he’s ranked in the top 10 by all four of the sanctioning bodies. So, technically, he’s a contender.
“When you look at Diego Pacheco, do you consider him a prospect or a contender?” said Mannix.
“He’s a solid contender because he’s not only ranked by all four organizations, but he’s getting better every time they match him up against someone harder,” said Sergio Mora, talking about Pacheco.
“That’s what you got to see with these young prospects turning into contenders about the fifteen fight. That’s when you branch them out, and they get to find out if they can sink or swim.
“Coceres is another test. They’ve been moving, meaning Matchroom Boxing promotions; they’ve been doing an amazing job with Diego Pacheco because from his pro debut, I didn’t think much of him. Even in his first couple of fights, I saw some things, but I didn’t think he would turn into this.
“He’s a legitimate top contender, and I would say maybe a future world champion once those belts become available. He’s not going to beat a Canelo fight now. He’s not ready. I don’t think he beats a Demetrius Andrade. He’s not ready, but the next in line, absolutely. He’s going to be right up there in the mix as a future world champion,” said More about Pacheco.
“I think he’s a contender, not just because he’s ranked up there in the top 10, but because when I talk to people outside of the Matchroom universe, outside of the DAZN universe, about Diego Pacheco, whether it’s managers, promoters, they say this kid is the real deal,” said Mannix.
Pacheco = future world champion?
“Sometimes when you have outside opinions, oftentimes those opinions are negative. Managers don’t have that fighter under contract. Other fighters don’t want to be too complimentary of a potential peer, but everyone I talk to believes that Diego Pacheco is a future legit world champion.
“I think he’s not almost there, but he’s getting there very quickly. I love your point about how Matchroom has matched him over the last couple of years. Look at his last two fights. Two fights ago, he headlined over in the UK, fighting a guy named Jack Cullen. Not a world-beater, but tall, rangy, good jab.
“That was one style for Pacheco to get used to. He knocked him out with a body shot. In his last fight, he fights a guy, Miguel Gallegos, who is pure pressure and physical. He took the fight to Pacheco. He landed some big shots.
“He made Pacheco fight off his back foot in that fight. So that was a good learning experience for him. Pacheco ultimately got a fourth round knockout,” said Mannix.