Darius Fulghum hands Diego Pacheco first loss with unanimous decision in Carson

CARSON — The Pacheco chants started in the first round and kept coming, rolling across the war grounds at Dignity Health Sports Park every time Diego Pacheco let a combination go. By the final bell, a lot of that crowd had gone quiet, watching Darius Fulghum collect the biggest win of his career.

Fulghum, the underdog, beat Pacheco by unanimous decision Saturday night, taking the WBC Silver and WBO International super middleweight titles, belts that can set up a bigger title shot, and handing the previously unbeaten Los Angeles native the first loss of his professional career. Jack Reiss and Fernando Villarreal scored it 115-112 and Pam Hayashida had it 114-113, all for Fulghum. Pacheco falls to 26-1 with 19 knockouts. Fulghum improves to 16-1-1 with 13. On the same card, Los Angeles’ own Anthony “Princesa” Olascuaga kept his WBO flyweight title in a co-main event that may have been just as good.

Cris Esqueda – Golden Boy Promotions

Fulghum celebrates after the unanimous decision.

The early rounds were a back and forth but Fulghum had his foot on the gas quickly. Pacheco worked a combination to the body and then upstairs in the first, Fulghum took a right hand on the chin, and then he settled in to counter. In the third, Pacheco was working behind a long jab and snapped Fulghum’s head back with a left, but Fulghum kept hunting him, and Pacheco was bleeding under his right eye by the end of the round.

From there it was Fulghum’s fight. He backed Pacheco up with the heavy jab in the fourth and kept coming, and it was striking how physical he made it. Pacheco looked uncomfortable both inside and outside. By the seventh, Fulghum was not giving him time to think, and Pacheco struggled to find any rhythm.

Cris Esqueda – Golden Boy Promotions

Fulghum lands a left hand on Pacheco at Dignity Health Sports Park.

The ninth round gave Pacheco an opening. Referee Ray Corona took a point from Fulghum for punches to the back of the head, and it was not the first time he had done it. The tenth turned into a war, with both men throwing bombs and sweat flying off them. In the eleventh, Pacheco caught him with a left hook, then dipped to avoid a right hand and ran into a perfectly timed left from Fulghum. Pacheco needed a knockdown in the twelfth. He snapped Fulghum’s head back with a sharp left hand, but Fulghum kept coming forward, and Pacheco looked tired and battered, with the cut under his right eye giving him problems.

Cris Esqueda – Golden Boy Promotions

Fulghum connects during their super middleweight title fight.

Fulghum, who had called this fight his second chance, said at the post-fight press conference that the win felt like “such a surreal feeling.” “This exact time last year, I had a bad performance and people wrote me completely off,” he said. “I tried to let people know that wasn’t me.” He thanked Golden Boy for giving him “another opportunity” to “right my wrongs last year,” and said he meant “every word I said” in the press. “In life, sometimes you don’t get second chances,” he said. “So when you do, you’ve got to give it everything that you’ve got.” “This is the king of hearts,” he said. “Man, I got too much heart in this. I want to win so bad. And so I’m glad, you know, I came out and did what I had to do in a hostile environment to get the job done.”

The ninth-round point deduction, he said, was one of the hardest things to overcome. “I felt like it was unfair for sure, because I was like, what do you want me to do?” Fulghum said. “He’s putting his head in the same spot, he keeps ducking right there.” He said it made him hesitate and cost him some momentum. He also thought the scorecards were too close. “I thought they should have been wider for sure,” he said.

Pacheco took it on himself in the ring after the decision. “It wasn’t my night tonight,” he said, adding that he did not feel like himself early. “I never felt like this before,” Pacheco said, but he credited Fulghum. “He was crafty. He did what he had to do.” Told that Fulghum had out-jabbed him 82 to 63, Pacheco said only that it just was not his night. Asked whether the cut he took in the third round changed the way he fought, he said, “Nah, nah, that didn’t change anything.” He said, “I definitely would love to run it back,” and promised a return: “get back in the gym, get better, and you guys will see me come back.”

Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn said there is a rematch clause, and that Pacheco had to leave for the hospital to get the cut under his right eye checked and stitched up.

Earlier on the card, David Adeleye won the WBA International heavyweight title with a 100-89 unanimous decision over Alexander Flores, Charlie Sheehy won 100-90 over Jose Matias Romero, Nishant Dev stopped Sona Akale in the third round, and Federico Pacheco Jr. knocked out Jack May in the fifth.

If the main event was a pressure fight, the co-main was a rollercoaster, and the hometown fighter rode it all the way home. Olascuaga, a Los Angeles native, retained his WBO flyweight title with a unanimous decision over Yuberjen Martinez of Colombia in twelve rounds that kept the crowd on its feet. Judges Rudy Barragan and Krysti Rosario scored it 115-112, and Chris Flores had it 114-113, with a knockdown giving Olascuaga the one-point advantage on that card. Olascuaga improved to 13-1 with 9 knockouts. Chants of “Princesa” rained down on Carson all night.

Speed and delivery were his sharpest tools early, and he looked bigger than Martinez. In the second, Olascuaga landed three left hooks in a row and rocked Martinez, then looked like he had been playing possum, baiting him in. Then Martinez took over. He was busier through the middle rounds, landing heavy combinations that snapped Olascuaga’s head back and good right counters every time Olascuaga came in. Martinez’s father was at the media table right next to me, yelling instructions and telling his son to keep his guard up, and for a stretch it looked like Martinez might take the title.

Olascuaga answered. In the eighth he started walking Martinez back, and with ten seconds left he went to the body with brutal shots. One round flipped the momentum, and the crowd went nuts every time he pressed forward. In the tenth, Olascuaga appeared to go down, but referee Thomas Taylor waved it off, and a replay showed he had tripped over his own feet. Both men then traded huge blows to end the round. By the late rounds it felt like either man could win. Then, in the twelfth, with the title on the line, Olascuaga unloaded a flurry that nearly knocked Martinez out of the ring, and a final left hook put him on the canvas. Fights at 112 pounds rarely get the hype they deserve, and this one was a reminder of why they should. 

Two Los Angeles fighters, two different outcomes, and a crowd that got its money’s worth.