Tag: Junior Lightweight

Andrew Cancio to sign with Top Rank: report

Andrew Cancio, who recently left Golden Boy Promotions, reportedly has signed a multi-fight deal with Top Rank.

Andrew Cancio will soon be back to working two jobs.

The former junior lightweight titleholder and Southern California day laborer has reportedly signed a multi-fight deal with Top Rank, just two months after he was released by former promoter Golden Boy for voicing his discontent with the company before his knockout loss to Rene Alvarado on Nov. 23.

Cancio, who crafted one of the best feel-good stories of last year by upsetting then titleholder Alberto Machado twice, took his ex-promoter to task for what he perceived was a lack of a promotional boost. After Cancio’s loss to Alvarado via seventh-round stoppage, Golden Boy promptly dropped the fighter from its roster.

“He wanted bigger purses and he wanted to fight in bigger venues,” Golden Boy president Eric Gomez told ESPN. “He didn’t think Golden Boy was providing that for him so we released him and wish him all the best. I hope he finds what he’s looking for.”

Cancio’s new promotional deal with Top Rank means he joins a packed stable of 130-pounders, including titleholders Miguel Berchelt and Jamel Herring, as well as contenders Carl Frampton and Oscar Valdez.

Cancio isn’t the only ex-Golden Boy fighter on the move. Longtime Golden Boy client and junior featherweight titleholder Rey Vargas reportedly signed with Premier Boxing champions.

 

Jamel Herring vs. Carl Frampton to land in N. Ireland, Bob Arum says

Jamel Herring’s next title defense against Carl Frampton will take place in Belfast, according to promoter Bob Arum.

A projected junior lightweight showdown between titleholder Jamel Herring and Carl Frampton will most likely take place in Frampton’s hometown of Belfast, North Ireland, where he is a big draw, according to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum.

“Herring has agreed to go to Belfast, and that is the fight we will do as soon as Frampton is fit to fight again,” Arum told BoxingScene.com.

Frampton recently broke both of his hands in an otherwise dominating 12-round decision over Ohio’s Tyler McCreary last December. Hand problems have been an ongoing issue for Frampton. He broke his left hand when a pillar in a hotel lobby fell and landed on it in August.

Frampton shot down recent rumors that his hands would not heal in time for a possible match-up in the spring.

The opportunity to fight Herring allows Frampton to become a potential three-division titleholder.

Herring is coming off a successful first defense of his title against Lamont Roach in November, winning by unanimous decision.

Buddy McGirt on Adam Lopez: ‘He lost the battle but won the war’

Buddy McGirt believes Adam Lopez is primed for big things after his seventh-round TKO loss to Oscar Valdez on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Adam Lopez was deprived of a career-changing win on Saturday night but his future remains bright, according to his trainer, Buddy McGirt.

“I’m proud of Adam,” McGirt told Boxing Junkie. “To me, Adam won the fight. He lost the battle but won the war.”

The 23-year-old career featherweight moved up a division as a last-minute replacement to fight Oscar Valdez, a former featherweight titleholder making his debut at the junior lightweight limit. Valdez’s original opponent, Andres Gutierrez, was dropped from the scheduled 10-rounder after weighing in 11 pounds over the 130-pound limit.

Of course, Lopez was recruited simply as a fill-in to preserve the main event so that the A-side’s three-month training camp would not go to waste. Instead, Lopez veered from the intended script, pasting Valdez all night with sharp jabs, quick straight rights and hard left hooks, one of which sent Valdez to the canvas in the second round. 

“Kid can fight, man,” McGirt said. “He’s a future superstar. He’s the real deal man. The sky’s the limit for this young man. I told him, ‘Don’t lose focus, man.’”

In the seventh, however, Valdez, answered back with a crushing left hook that hurt Lopez and led to a knockdown. When he got up, Valdez jumped on his opponent with a flurry of punches that prompted referee Russell to stop the fight, cutting short what might have been a colossal upset win for the unheralded Lopez.

While many observers criticized Mora’s decision, McGirt respected the call.

“I’m gonna say this: The referees see more than I do, since he’s the closest man to the action,” said McGirt, who lost a fighter in the ring earlier this year in Maxim Dadashev. “I’m not mad at anybody. Maybe he saw something and just had to lean with it. He felt what he needed to do.”

Bad call or not, Lopez left the ring with an enhanced profile.

“By (stopping the fight), Mora made Adam the biggest star,” McGirt said. “It was better than going to the scorecards and getting robbed. Either way, it made Adam the bigger star.”

Indeed, two of the three judges had Valdez leading after six rounds, including an egregious 58-55 – five rounds to one – from Dave Moretti.

The real loser, McGirt insisted, is Valdez, who has to contend with the reality that he struggled visibly against a prospect who was still fighting in six-to-eight-round fights.

“Valdez has to second guess himself now,” McGirt said. “He fought a 126-pounder moving up the day before and you get your ass kicked like that for seven rounds, know what I mean? It’s going to make Valdez think. He was an Olympian and former champion. Adam knows he belongs and in 2020, God willing, he becomes a world champion.”

McGirt said Lopez was consoled by a pair of former world champions, who were called the fight on ESPN+.

“He was very disappointed but Andre Ward and Timothy Bradley had a nice talk with him,” McGirt said. “They shot straight from the hip and said they were Adam Lopez fans. They told him we didn’t want to be fans but you made us fans.”

The crowd at the Cosmopolitan apparently felt the same way, as it booed Valdez when he gave his post-fight remarks inside the ring.

“You heard the crowd cheering Adam and booing Valdez on the way out,” McGirt said. “What better feeling is that? Tyson Fury didn’t win against Deontay Wilder and he’s a bigger star.”

McGirt also said that promoter Bob Arum offered words of encouragement. Lopez will continue to work with Top Rank, “without a doubt,” McGirt added.

Maybe there are moral victories in boxing, after all.

 

Rene Alvarado upsets Andrew Cancio by 7th-round stoppage

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.