DAZN Diego Pacheco vs. Immanuel Aleem Live Updates and Highlights

Pacheco's 26th victory and 19th KO allowed him to retain a pair of lower-tier sanctioning body belts, but, more importantly, it got him back to his place as a confident 168-pounder.

The official time of the TKO was 2:32 of Round 11.

Pacheco landed 123 of 314 jabs compared to Aleem's 23 of 143. Pacheco also landed 143 of 288 power shots, which rounds up to a 50 percent land rate.

"This is my homecourt and I had to give a great show for my fans," he said. "I was doing what Aleem gave me. I was reading him. I was studying him every round.

"(I want) the biggest fight possible."

Hearn, standing alongside Pacheco afterward, beamed at his client's result.

"That was exactly the performance we were looking for. You saw the improvements one night in just one fight, Hearn said.

"For Los Angeles, is there a better fight than Diego Pacheco versus (WBA champion) Jaime Munguia for the world super middleweight title? We want to back in this arena. Whether it's November or the spring of 2027, we will get Jaime Munguia, we will beat him, and then we'll go after Canelo Alvarez as well."

Pacheco did some of his most decisive work in the opening two minutes of the 10th round, flurrying to the body and scoring well when he shifted the attack to the head, sending Aleem reeling through the final minute. Between rounds, Aleem's lead cornerman said, "They're looking for a reason to stop you."

Referee Ray Corona made Aleem pace to a neutral corner and back before waving the fighters together to begin the 11th, and the official stood nearby imploring Aleem to Show him something.

Aleem finally went to the floor to end the first minute of the 11th, rose and survived for another minute, then was beaten back to the floor and prompted Corona's intervention.

"(Pacheco) was patient, smart, accurate, and he was having fun," analyst Sergio Mora said.

Pacheco ceded territory to begin the seventh and Aleem got inside to begin working the body before landing a hard right hand to the head that prompted a backward step. Pacheco responded with more body work and had Aleem visibly uncomfortable late in the round.

McGirt suggested Pacheco was focusing too hard on landing fight-changing right hands, which was dulling his work rate and allowing Aleem to get inside and move his own hands. Still, Pacheco's body work was superior in nearly every exchange, maintaining the fight's overall momentum through eight rounds.

Pacheco's body work continued into the ninth and opened the door for a subsequent flurry to the head, prompting referee Ray Corona to focus intently on Aleem's condition. At worst, Pacheco appears to have an 8-1 lead in rounds entering the final three.

The frenetic energy from Round 1 remained absent into the fourth for Aleem, who was still having a hard time getting past Pacheco's active jab, frequently leaving him at an ineffective distance given the measurements. The follow-up right hands had landed often through four rounds but none with particularly eye-catching damage.  

Two lefts to the body were noticeable halfway through the fifth and the second one was followed by a hard right uppercut that snapped Aleem's head back and drew the fight's first audible crowd reaction. Between the fifth and sixth, McGirt called for Pacheco to feint a follow-up shot after landing one to gauge Aleem's reaction.

The left hooks to the body were the most telling shots into the sixth, prompting deep breaths from Aleem and keeping him reticent to charge into close range.

Pacheco came out deliberately and worked the signature McGirt style behind a long, left jab and straight right. Aleem was more frenetic, bolting from outside to inside to initiate exchanges and frustrate his foe and make it what McGirt labeled "an ugly fight."

A landed Pacheco right drew a head shake from Aleem just before the end of the first round and the favorite just missed with a right cross in the opening minute of the second. Though successful, Pacheco appeared to be thinking rather than reacting, while Aleem was less energetic and presented more of a stationary target in the second.

The jab-right combinations continued from Pacheco through the third—and he'd won each round pretty clearly—though he'd not landed anything of dissuading significance.

The ring walks are imminent for the main event and Pacheco's promoter, Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn, wants nothing less than a Saturday night special performance for his man.

Hearn called for Pacheco to "smash" Aleem, climb up on the turnbuckle in his hometown and "call out all the big names" in the weight class.

Two quick finishes means a 40-ish-minute wait before ring walks for Pacheco and Aleem, each of whom have drawn cheers upon been shown on stadium screens.

Pacheco is seven months past his most recent win, a 12-round decision over Kevin Lele Sadjo in Stockton, where he climbed off the deck in Round 8 to secure a 25th win.

Aleem, meanwhile, has been off since he dropped a decision to Lester Martinez in March in San Bernardino, where he won just three of 36 possible rounds across three scorecards. The Martinez loss ended a five-fight unbeaten streak for Aleem, who'd gone 4-0-1 across nearly five full calendar years.

Montoya came out plodding forward behind a left jab and physicality and Cruz was determined to match the aggression, standing shoulder-to-shoulder to dig to the body in the first round's first minute.

Cruz's hand speed and quicker feet were an instant separator, though, and he was able to create and exploit openings thanks to superior movement.

A clean right hand at the bell yielded a tumbling knockdown for Cruz to end Round 2 and referee Thomas Taylor consulted a ringside doctor before letting Round 3 begin—suspecting a broken jaw—and Taylor quickly leapt in when Cruz pinned Montoya in a corner with a seven-punch flurry.

The official time was 54 seconds of the third.

"That's similar to an amateur stoppage," blow-by-blow man Corey Erdman said, "when a bout is not competitive."

The third fight echoes what's been a Saturday theme so far, with a younger, less-experienced favorite taking a step up against a well-traveled foe on a slide.

Andy Cruz struck lightweight gold at the 2020 Olympics (which took place in 2021 in Tokyo) and was ambitious to begin his pro career, winning six in a row before dropping a majority decision to Raymond Muratalla in a bid for an IBF title at 135 pounds in January.

Cruz's opponent this time is Abraham Montoya, who was 18-1-1 in his first 20 fights before a 6-6 skid that began with a scorecard loss to Muhammad Yaqubov in November 2019.

Each of Montoya's six subsequent losses have also been by decision.

Not much to separate in Round 1 beyond Gonzalez's faster hands and territorial control thanks to sound foot positioning. He let loose with the session's lone real flurry along the ropes about two minutes in, but nothing of substance landed.

That wasn't the case in the second, though, as "Chop Chop" dropped Alameda to his knees from the delayed impact of a hard right to the belly, and Alameda was unable to beat Ray Armendariz's count.

The official time was 1:52 of Round 2.

Analyst Chris Mannix labeled the finishing blow "a machete to the body" and Sergio Mora echoed the sentiment, "The development, the confidence and the patience," Mora said. "That's what I'm loving in this kid. For a 24-year-old, he's way ahead of schedule."

"I'm not here to just pick up checks," Gonzalez said. "I'm here to be a world champion."

It's a two-division move up to featherweight for the main show's second bout, which matches unbeaten 24-year-old Californian Albert "Chop Chop" Gonzalez, who's 17-0 with 10 KOS, with Mexican southpaw Aaron Alameda, 32, who was 25-0 to begin his career before losing a bid for a vacant title at 122 pounds and arrives at 31-3 with 18 KOs.

Alameda is the first southpaw Gonzalez has faced.

Close fight, but a justifiable unanimous decision.

Two cards give Rios seven of 10 rounds for a pair of 96-93 tabs while a third matched B/R's card and had it 95-94 for the winner.

155 landed punches (of 427 thrown) across 10 rounds for Rios to 152 of 564 for Sanchez.

"This kid stepped it up," analyst Sergio Mora said, "and this kid showed us why he took this big step."

DAZN analysts Chris Mannix and Sergio Mora beat a consistent drum suggesting Rios's handlers may have overreached by putting their man in with Sanchez, who weathered every storm and responded.

Still, the B/R card had the youngster ahead by a point through eight rounds (76-75) despite the early knockdown deduction. The final six minutes were pockmarked with exchanges with the fighters squared off in a forehead-to-forehead position, from which Rios was consistently effective with hard hooks to the body.

Sanchez was energetic down the stretch, but in the final B/R tally, Rios wins it, 95-94.

A hard left to the body from Rios kicked off a fourth-round flurry in which the youngster had his 29-year-old foe reeling from the blows and lowering his elbows, providing a freer path for Rios to land blows to the head.

A veteran of 26 pro fights, though, Sanchez was back to a front-foot attack in the fifth and encountered no real peril. It's the first time past four rounds for Rios, while Sanchez will come out for Round 7 for the 11th in his career.

A compact bantamweight at 5'4" and 118 pounds, Rios was aggressive in the opening round but failed to find a finish sequence despite landing harder and more frequent shots.

He was continuing to land, less frequently, in the second before getting clipped with a long, left hook that sent him tumbling into the ropes and was scored a knockdown. Effective work with jabs and lead left hooks put Rios back in control through the third.

It's a scheduled 10-rounder at bantamweight to open the main card, with unbeaten prospect Bruno Rios taking on veteran Saul Sanchez.

Sanchez is 9-4-1 since starting his career with 12 straight wins, while Rios is 8-0 with seven KOs in less than two years as a pro.

It's been nearly two full years since Pacheco's last KO win.

Can the addition of highly-regarded trainer Buddy McGirt get him back on a finishing tear?

The Pacheco family picked up an unusual undercard victory when Diego's heavyweight brother, Federico Jr., improved to 11-0 as a pro when opponent Nick Jones was unable to continue after sustaining a biceps injury in the second round.

It's a $5,000 minimum add to the bank account for the main-card principals tonight at the Dignity Health Sports Park complex, home of MLS's L.A. Galaxy, with main-event headliner Pacheco racking in a cool half million.