By Aragon Garcia: Golden Boy Promotions have released former WBA ‘regular super featherweight champion Andrew Cancio (21-5-2, 16 KOs) several days following his 7th round stoppage loss to #1 WBA Rene Alvarado (32-8, 21 KOs) in their rematch last Saturday night at the Fantasy Springs Casino, in Indio, California.
The 31-year-old Cancio wasn’t happy with his promoters at Golden Boy, according to ESPN. As such, Golden Boy released the 31-year-old Cancio from his contract on Tuesday. Cancio wanted to make more money, and fight in bigger venues. Whether another promoter will be able to give Cancio what he wants is unknown.
If Cancio signs with Matchroom Boxing, there’s a chance that he might make more money, but it’s not a given. Cancio would still need to show that he’s capable of winning another world title. Unfortunately for Cancio, Alvarado appears to have his number. It wouldn’t be a good idea for Cancio to fight him a second time. Cancio defeated Alvarado by an 8th round knockout in a cut stoppage in
Earlier this year, Cancio surprised a lot of boxing fans in defeating WBA 130-lb champion Alberto Machado (21-2, 17 KOs) by a 4th round knockout to capture his belt. It was a big upset, as the knockout artist Machado was expected to win the fight.
Machado wasn’t ready for the powerful body shots that Cancio was nailing him with. Four months later, Cancio again beat Machado in knocking him out in the 3rd round with a body shot. Once again, Cancio’s vicious body attack was too much for the 29-year-old Machado.
Cancio vows to win another world title
“I’m not happy with what has transpired but my goal is to become a world champion again and work with a promotional company that will provide me with the opportunity,” Cancio said to ESPN. “I’ll be back stronger than ever and I greatly appreciate the loyal support of my fans and I look forward to returning to the ring in the New Year.”
Cancio wanted more exposure for his fights, since he’s not been given a huge amount of publicity like other fighters at 130. You can’t compare the amount of attention former IBF/WBA super featherweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis has gotten while he was at 130 with that of Cancio. He might as well have been invisible, because he’s far less known that Gervonta.
Cancio didn’t fight the right game plan against Alvarado. He stood and slugged with the 30-year-old Nicaraguan Alvarado, and he didn’t possess the hand speed or the combination punching ability to win with that style. Yuriorkis Gamboa created the blueprint on how to beat Alvarado in March 2017 when he beat him by a 10 round unanimous decision.
Cancio failed to follow Gamboa’s blueprint to beat Alvarado
Gamboa used and in and out attacking style to dominate Alvarado. Of course, Gamboa had the superior hand speed and punching power, and that made things easier. Cancio isn’t as fast as Gamboa, and he doesn’t use movement. So he always going to have problems against Alvarado, because he was a slower, smaller stationary target. Cancio was the ideal guy for Alvarado to beat.
Cancio was getting hammered by Alvarado’s combinations from the earliest moments of the fight. It was hard to watch how much punishment Cancio was taking, as he was too slow and was getting hit with repeated shows Alvarado was hitting Cancio nonstop with punches.
What was surprising is how Alvarado got away with hitting Cancio with triple left hooks without him being able to fire anything back in between. Things started getting out of hand by the third round when Cancio suffered a cut over his left eye. He started to get beaten up by Alvarado.
After the 6th round, Cancio’s corner told him that they would give him one more round to show that he could be competitive. They wanted Cancio to knock Alvarado out, but he lacked the fire power to do so. After the round ended, referee Raul Caiz Sr. came over to Cancio’s corner and stopped the fight. At the time of the stoppage, Alvarado was up on all three scorecards by the scores 70-63, 70-63 and 69-64.