Teenage boxer Diego Pacheco has his sights set on becoming a title contender after his fight on Friday night.
The 19-year-old Mexican-American will fight in Mexico City in his 10th bout, with an undefeated record still intact.
He is scheduled to fight Juan Antonio Mendez (12-2-2, 10 KOs) in a six-rounder, and the fighter from Los Angeles is eager to build his early success into something meaningful.
“I am in a great place right now in my career, I’m just where I want to be, I’m 9-0, soon to be 10-0, and now talking about becoming a contender,” said Pacheco (9-0, 7 KOs). “I feel like this is a really critical time in my career but that we’re on the right path to where we want to go.
“I’m a lot taller than most of the fighters in my division, which makes me longer than them and I can control the distance, but when I do get in there with people that are my height and have my reach, I think my boxing skill is just higher than my opponents and rivals in the division.
“I feel like I am ready. People would tell me that they thought I was being rushed because I was fighting every month, I was 9-0 in my first year, but they were doing that for a reason, they could see that I was ready for these fights.”
Pacheco has been affected by the coronavirus much the same as his peers, and has been unable to fight during the pandemic, but believes he has put the time away from the ring to good use.
He said: “When the pandemic happened and gave me time off from the ring, I feel like it’s helped me to mature and learn even more, so going into my 10th fight I am ready. I trust in the process and I’m going along with it.
“Every fight I am getting better, there’s something new each time that I have been working on and whomever they put in front of me, I figure them out and do what works.
“The path I am on right now is taking me to a great place. All the guys I talk to that have more experience than me and have been in the sport longer than me, they tell me to keep going and doing what I am doing, the sky is the limit.”
Pacheco is on a card featuring three world title fights.
Juan Francisco Estrada (40-3 27 KOs) will defend his WBC and Ring Magazine world super-flyweight titles in a rematch with Carlos Cuadras (39-3-1 27 KOs) and Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez (49-2 41 KOs) defends his WBA world super-flyweight title against Israel Gonzalez (25-3 11 KOs) — with Estrada and Chocolatito on a collision course for a rematch should they both emerge victorious — and Julio Cesar Martinez (16-1 12 KOs) will now defend his WBC World Flyweight title against Moises Calleros (33-9-1 17 KOs).