Diego Pacheco survived an eighth-round knockdown, an ugly fight, and a somewhat shaky performance to score a unanimous decision win against Kevin Lele Sadjo on Saturday in Stockton, California.

Pacheco (25-0, 18 KOs) proclaimed that a knockout was the goal against Sadjo (26-1, 23 KOs) during the buildup of the super middleweight bout, but the opportunity for the stoppage was never in store as he picked up his third straight unanimous decision win of the year.

Judges scored the contest 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112 in favor of Pacheco at Adventist Health Arena to headline a Matchroom Boxing card on DAZN. Pacheco landed 128 of 642 punches, while Sadjo connected with 117 of 425 shots, according to CompuBox.

Pacheco leveraged an 11-inch reach advantage and an eight-inch height advantage and leaned on a potent jab to get the job done, just like he did against Steven Nelson in January and Trevor McCumby in July.

Pacheco, 24, mostly controlled the range and rhythm while the wider Sadjo, 35, stood chest to chest and tried to capitalize on the minimal openings he found by winging away. The fight got ugly at times in close quarters with excessive holding.

The most exhilarating moment of the matchup arrived in the eighth when Sadjo dropped Pacheco with a picture-perfect left hook in the opening minute. Pacheco picked himself off the canvas and ate another crushing left hook for good measure, but this time he held up well and fought back.

Pacheco turned the tide in the 11th round with a right hand and left hook combo that led to a near 15-punch combination that went unanswered.

In the 12th, Pacheco responded with a dedicated attack to the body to seal the victory.

Pacheco has fought to workmanlike unanimous decision wins in four out of his last five fights after nine consecutive knockouts.

Coming into the clash, Pacheco said he was ready to etch a new identity by moving forward with fights against the likes of Christian Mbilli, Lester Martinez, Jaime Munguia, Hamzah Sheeraz and even Canelo Alvarez.