Diego Pacheco Shuns Mbilli for Unranked, Recently Knocked-Out Trevor McCumby

Diego Pacheco has chosen not to continue negotiations for a fight against the highly ranked #1 WBC contender for the interim 168-lb belt and could instead face the recently knocked-out, unranked Trevor McCumby. That’s the disappointing part.

McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs) was knocked out in the ninth round by Caleb Plant on September 14th last year. That was the first time in McCumby’s career that he’d fought a top-tier opponent, and he was out of his league. At the time, Trevor, 32, was ranked low. He’s now out of the top 15 rankings following that defeat.

Mbilli: Too Risky?

It appears to be a calculated move on the part of the Matchroom-promoted Pacheco (23-0, 18 KOs) because fighting the unbeaten Mbilli (28-0, 23 KOs) would be risky for the still green 24-year-old fighter. Pacheco is in a position now to challenge unified three-belt super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez. If he were to lose to Mbilli, he could forget about the big payday against Alvarez.

Pacheco is ranked #1 WBO, #2 WBC, #6 WBA, and #11 IBF at super middleweight.

Lance Pugmire broke the news of the Eddie Hearn-promoted Pacheco pulling out of his talks with Mbilli.

It looks like Pacheco’s promoters don’t want to take any chances with him by having him beaten by Mbilli because he’s not a solid enough fighter to guarantee a victory against this level of an opponent. If the idea is to keep Pacheco winning long enough to hit the motherload with a massive goldmine fight against Canelo, keeping him away from Mbilli is the wise thing to do.

There’s too much money on the line for Hearn to throw the stork-like Pacheco in with Mbilli and watch him get cleaned out. Pacheco is a good fighter, but he’s not infallible. He makes mistakes, and if you do that against Mbilli, it could result in a knockout loss. Pacheco is seen as a poor man’s David Benavidez in the eyes of some fans.

McCrumby isn’t entirely a risk-free fight for Pacheco. He’s got pop in his punches, but he’s mostly just a pot-shot fighter who gasses out quickly if he’s unable to score a KO. As long as Pacheco doesn’t get caught by one of Trevor’s big right hands early, he should be able to take him out in the second half of the fight.