Super middleweight contender Diego Pacheco improved to 21-0 (17 KOs) with a tough 10-round win over Shawn McCalman, and now Pacheco is looking for a top 10 opponent.

McCalman was 15-0 (7 KOs) going in, and the 23-year-old Pacheco admits he had plenty to solve at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas.

“I think he was a helluva fighter,” he said of McCalman. “My respects to him. The fight went how it was supposed to go. When two tough fighters go in there that’s how it gets, so it was a great fight and I hope the fans enjoyed it.

“He’s a great fighter, he’s got skills, he’s got power as well. He’s a tricky fighter. I came in there, did my best and that’s what it was.”

Pacheco won by margins of 98-92, 97-93 and 96-94 and, when asked why he found his opponent so tough, Pacheco said: “He had a long reach, but that’s how it goes in boxing. Some fights are going to get ugly, some fights are going to be slower paced than others, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to get the W, and that’s what I did today.

“He kept coming in with his head, a few elbows, stepped on my foot a few times, all those things that he tried to do to get me out of my game plan. But I stuck to it, listened to my corner and we came out with the W.

“I feel like fights like this teach you more than when you get the fighters out of there real quick, so I’m happy we went the distance. Everything happens for a reason and I’m here, I’m learning, and I’m getting better each fight.

“I’m ready [to step up]. I’ll be straight back in the gym getting ready for the next one and I told [promoter] Eddie [Hearn], we need a top 10 guy next, and hopefully he gets that guy for me. Any of those guys, we can run it.”