They’re not particularly pleased, as you might imagine, that he’ll face Darius Fulghum on Saturday night. Fulghum has only one loss on his record, a competitive points defeat to Bektemir Melikuziev, but the polarizing Pacheco’s detractors think he should’ve already faced former or current champions.

Christian Mbilli, Hamzah Sheeraz, Jaime Munguia or Lester Martinez all would’ve sufficed.

Pacheco passed on fights against Mbilli and Sheeraz, ranked No. 4 and No. 9 in The Ring’s top 10, respectively. The Los Angeles native called out the fifth-ranked Munguia, who owns the WBA 168-pound crown, after Pacheco stopped Immanuwel Aleem in the 11th round of his last fight July 18 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

Eddie Hearn, Pacheco’s promoter, never seemed optimistic about Pacheco challenging Munguia next. Pacheco (26-0, 19 KOs) will instead return to Dignity Health Sports Park to fight Fulghum (15-1-1, 13 KOs) in a 12-round main event DAZN will stream globally and TNT and truTV will televise in the United States.

Pacheco, ranked No. 6 among The Ring’s super middleweight contenders for an unclaimed championship, is listed by DraftKings as a 12-1 favorite to defeat an opponent perceived to be on a similar level to Pacheco’s past four foes – Steven Nelson, Trevor McCumby, Kevin Lele Sadjo and Aleem.

The unapologetic Pacheco’s plan is to secure the type of big fight he has long discussed after defeating Fulghum. If that’s not soon enough to suit skeptics, so be it.

“I’ve learned throughout the years that you can’t make everyone happy,” Pacheco told The Ring. “And if we’re being honest, a lotta people wanna see me lose. It’s all about just playing my cards right. This boxing business can be over in one second, so it’s always about being mindful of that, being smart and, like they say, this is chess, not checkers, so you’ve gotta be smart with it.”

Pacheco’s perspective changed after he defeated France’s Sadjo (30-1, 25 KOs) by unanimous decision December 13 in Stockton, California. Displeased with his performance, particularly with getting knocked down during the eighth round, Pacheco hired a new trainer, former two-division champ James “Buddy” McGirt, to work with him prior to his fight against Aleem.

The 6-foot-4 Pacheco expects a second camp with McGirt to lead to an even better performance versus Fulghum and a career-changing 2027.

“There’s a lotta great fighters [at super middleweight] and great fights to be made,” Pacheco said. “When I look at the list, all these top guys are in their 30s. They’re all 31, 32, some even older. When I look at me, I’m 25 years old, and the record that I’m building thus far and the experience and the relationship with my new coach, everything is lining up for me to take over 168 in due time. I’m here to put in the work and do everything necessary to get there.”

While we can never assume the WBA will do the right thing, even the unscrupulous sanctioning organization realized it had little choice but to deny Teofimo Lopez’s appeal of its order to fight mandatory challenger Jack Catterall next.

The WBA assured Catterall’s team in writing that Lopez would have to defend its welterweight title against him next or Lopez would be stripped. Furthermore, Lopez (23-2, 13 KOs) was fortunate to get a shot at Rolando “Rolly” Romero’s title August 22 because he suffered a lopsided points loss to Shakur Stevenson in his previous fight January 31.

Beyond that, there was simply no justification for stalling England’s Catterall (33-2, 14 KOs) any longer. The skillful southpaw earned his shot at the WBA belt and he should get it next.

The WBA’s denial of Lopez’s appeal doesn’t mean, of course, that Lopez must face Catterall next. If the former unified lightweight champ instead wants to finalize a deal to face Ryan Garcia for more money, Lopez doesn’t need the WBA belt to partake in what would already be an appealing fight to the paying public.

Garcia (26-2, 21 KOs, 1 NC), who owns the WBC crown, obviously wants the WBA belt at stake if he opposes Lopez because it will make his rematch with Devin Haney a full title unification fight if Haney handles Liam Paro on December 19 and he were to beat Lopez on the proposed date of February 6. Like Lopez, though, Garcia recognizes they don’t need the WBA belt to validate one of the more marketable matches in boxing.

■ Good luck to Eye of the Tiger Management getting a 140-pound champion or top contender to fight Colombian knockout artist Jhon Orobio (20-0, 18 KOs) after what he did to Hendri Cedeno (16-1, 12 KOs) on Thursday night in Montreal.

■ Jaron Ennis (36-0, 32 KOs, 1 NC) opened as a 10-1 favorite, according to FanDuel, to beat Josh Kelly (19-1-1, 9 KOs) in their 154-pound title unification fight February 27 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Vergil Ortiz (24-0, 22 KOs) is favored by just about the same margin, 11-1, to defeat Keith Thurman (31-2, 23 KOs, 1 NC) on December 5 in a non-title fight that has drawn criticism because Thurman was stopped by Sebastian Fundora in the sixth round of a one-sided, 154-pound match March 28 in Las Vegas.

■ After losing his WBO middleweight title for fighting Shane Mosley Jr. in his Zuffa Boxing debut, Denzel Bentley urged his new promoter to secure him a title shot next. Matching him against Carlos Adames seems like the easiest way to accommodate Bentley’s request, assuming Adames wins a meaningless mismatch against Gerome Warburton in his Zuffa debut Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. If the WBC strips Adames (25-1-1, 18 KOs) for not facing mandatory challenger Meiirim Nursultanov after his fight with Wales’ Warburton (18-2-2, 2 KOs), Adames-Bentley is still one of the best in-house fights Zuffa can make in 2027.

■ Speaking of Bentley’s unanimous points victory over Mosley (23-6, 13 KOs), credit to Mosley for overcoming the first knockdown of his career with 1:43 to go in the second round and making their 10-round fight competitive Saturday night in London. The gritty Mosley impressively regained his composure after Bentley’s right hand dropped him, made Bentley (23-3-1, 18 KOs) wary of his own right hand and won at least four rounds on all three scorecards (96-93, 96-94, 95-94).