If you\u2019re wondering whether Richmond Virginia\u2019s Immanuwel Aleem is coming to win or just survive against Renton, Washington\u2019s undefeated Diego Pacheco, you needed to look no further than his outfit at today\u2019s final press conference for their upcoming 12-round fight for the WBC Silver and WBO International super middleweight titles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Typical to his professional career, Aleem, 22-4-3 (14 KOs), will once again be going into the ring as the underdog when he faces top-ranked Pacheco, 25-0 (18 KOs), this Saturday, July 18, on a Matchroom Boxing card from Dignity Health Sports Park Carson, California, and live on DAZN (8:00 PM ET \/ 5:00 PM PT).<\/p>\n
However, far from feeling over-matched, 32-year-old \u201cThe Chosen One\u201d Aleem showed up for today\u2019s final press event wearing the typical outfit of a forensic specialist at a murder scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m just prepared for the occasion,\u201d Aleem explained of his outfit. \u201cYou know, there’s a body on Saturday. I gotta go get it, so, I\u2019m just prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
5\u2019 9\u201d Aleem says he\u2019s ready for war Saturday night and fully expects to pull off the upset against the bigger and younger, 6\u2019 4\u201d, 25-year-old Pacheco.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course (I think I\u2019m going to win). I’m a real boxer. I’ve been in this sport since I was 12 years old\u2026 I know what’s at stake\u2026 it\u2019s hands versus hands, and I know what these hands can do\u2026 We’re going to get it on. And like I said, I’m dressed for the occasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fight everybody who\u2019s been tall. Look at my record. You see the guys. I\u2019m normally the shorter fighter nine times out of ten. It\u2019s another day in the boxing ring for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
WBC No. 13-ranked Aleem also made note of some controversy surrounding Pacheco, especially in his last fight, a December 2025 unanimous 12-round decision over Kevin Lele Sadjo where Pacheco had to get up off the canvas in round eight and then spent long stretches tying Sadjo up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he holds repeatedly, probably like three to four times a round. Referees need to really identify that, and hopefully he doesn\u2019t make this a hugging match, and we can really throw hands,\u201d said Aleem.<\/p>\n
Aleem says facing the hot, young prospect on the cusp of a world title try is nothing new to him, in fact he\u2019s flourished previously in that situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I went through this several years ago with Khytrov,\u201d said Aleem, referring to his January 2017 TKO 6 over then 14-0 Ievgen Khytrov for the vacant WBC silver middleweight title in which Khytrov was down twice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was undefeated and ready to fight Triple G. It’s the same situation. They throw these fighters (at me) \u2026 now it’s (the same situation), again, with Pacheco.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my time for myself\u2026 I climbed myself back up from two years ago\u2026 I wasn’t ranked. I marched right back to a (world-ranked) position, so it might be right where I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re wondering whether Richmond Virginia\u2019s Immanuwel Aleem is coming to win or just survive against Renton, Washington\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,711,710,49,48,2174,149180,264567,29023,82],"class_list":["post-806931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxingscene","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dazn","tag-diego-pacheco","tag-immanuwel-aleem","tag-matchroom","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}