Andrew Cancio had no answer for Rene Alvarado, who stopped Cancio in the seventh round of their junior lightweight title fight.
One of boxing’s best stories came to an end on Saturday night at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California.
In its place is perhaps just the beginning of yet another feel-good underdog tale.
Junior lightweight titleholder Andrew Cancio, boxing’s cinderella man, had no answer for Nicaraguan Rene Alvarado, who set a blistering pace from the opening bell and never looked back. As both fighters returned to their stools at the end of Round 7, referee Raul Caiz Sr. took one quick look at Cancio’s battered face and waved off the bout, as the pro-Cancio crowd went silent.
An emotional Alvarado began tearing up, as his team, including countryman Roman Gonzalez, surrounded him. Like the blue-collar Cancio, who lays pipes as a full-time employee of the Souther California Gas Company, Alvarado was something of a journeyman. After a 10-fight stretch that saw him go 4-6, Alvarado had doubts about his career. But he retooled himself to reel off seven straight wins.
With Saturday’s win, Alvarado avenged his stoppage loss to Cancio in 2015 and joins his brother, 108-pound titleholder Felix Alvarado, as the only other current Nicaraguan titleholder. Saturday’s win also landed on the 45th anniversary of when lightweight great Alexis Arguello became the first Nicaraguan to win a world title by beating Ruben Olivares.
From Round 1, Alvarado (32-8, 21 knockouts) was the quicker and stronger man. He unleashed one quick combination after another as Cancio stood in the pocket and absorbed them. By Round 3, Cancio’s face was swollen and bloodied, with a cut over his left eye. As the rounds went on, Alvarado continued his demolition job, peppering Cancio with right hands from the outside and outworking him on the inside, where he routinely snapped Cancio’s head back with quick hooks.
“It was the plan to start dominating from the beginning of the fight,” Alvarado said afterward. “This was the plan.”
Cancio could never quite get into a rhythm.
“Rene fought a helluva fight,” Cancio said afterward. “I was just two steps behind him. I don’t know. I don’t know. He fought his fight tonight and got his revenge for the rematch. Congratulations to him. He did what I did: Came over here and became a world champion. Enjoy this. I know how it feels.
The loss caps what has been a remarkable comeback for Cancio (21-5-2, 16 KOs), who had briefly retired from the sport after his stoppage loss to Joseph Diaz in 2016. He returned in 2018, won two straight, and in February, challenged then titleholder Alberto Machado and upset him by a fourth-round stoppage. He then won the rematch later in the summer.
Cancio offered no excuses for his performance on Saturday.
“I kept trying,” he said. “Tonight was (Alvarado’s) night. I got hit with too many shots. I had a great camp. There were no excuses about it. The better man won tonight. He fought a tremendous fight.”
In a barnburner on the undercard, the fan-friendly Xu Can threw 1,562 punches — a junior lightweight record, per CompuBox — en route to outpointing Manny Robles III over 12 rounds in a junior lightweight bout.
The scores were 120-108, 119-109, and 118-110, all for Can.
Both fighters wasted no time exchanging hooks and uppercuts on the inside. The early rounds were close, with Can (18-2, 3 KOs) throwing more punches but Robles (18-1, 8 KOs) landing the cleaner shots.
The tide began to turn midway through the fight, in Round 6. Can began to separate himself with his body work, landing knifing left hands to Robles’ right ribcage, and, in a sign of his superior conditioning, never relented from his torrid pace. In Round 10, Can began to add more starch to his punches and even seemed to stagger Robles with a body punch late. Though Robles was more than game — the fight was closer than the judges scored it — it was clear he had no answer for Can’s volume punching.
Afterward, Can called out Josh Warrington for a junior lightweight unification.
Also, Rashidi Ellis (22-0, 14 KOs) defeated Eddie Gomez (23-4, 13 KOs) in a welterweight rematch by unanimous decision. Two judges had it 99-91 and the other had it 100-90, all for Ellis.
Ellis won the first fight by first-round knockout in 2016.
