ALVARADO UPSETS CANCIO, CAPTURES WORLD TITLE
Mandatory challenger Rene Alvarado upset Andrew Cancio via technical knockout after seven rounds to win the WBA “regular” super featherweight championship on Saturday night. The fight headlined a DAZN broadcast from the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, CA.
Alvarado (32-8, 21 KO) started the fight quickly, winning the first round fairly easily. The challenger continued to land cleanly on the champion in the rest of the early rounds, opening a cut over Cancio’s left eye in the third.
Things continued to get worse for Cancio in the fifth, as Alvarado began to land at will with the right hand. From the end of the fifth round on, Cancio was in danger of having the fight called off by the ring doctor, who was a frequent visitor to Cancio’s corner that night.
After seeming to lose virtually every round on the scorecards while taking serious punishment, Cancio (21-5-2, 16 KO) had to beg his corner and the doctor to let him out for the seventh round. Although his cornermen sent him out for another round, Cancio was unable to turn things around in the eighth, prompting them to stop the fight once he returned to the corner.
With Nicaraguan compatriot Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez watching from ringside, an emotional Alavarado celebrated with his team while sitting on the stool in his corner.
In the co-headliner, WBA “regular” featherweight champion Xu Can retained his title, throwing upwards of 1,500 punches en route to a unanimous decision victory over Manny Robles III. The official scores read: 120-108, 119-109, 118-110, all in favor of Can.
The fight got off to a competitive start early on, as both men traded shots. While Can was coming forward and throwing lots of punches, Robles was returning fire with clean shots of his own.
The middle rounds saw Can (17-2, 3 KO) gaining momentum and turning up the pressure, overwhelming Robles with combinations to both the head and body. Uppercuts and left hooks to the body were the main staple of Can’s attack throughout the fight.
Robles (18-1, 8 KO) looked particularly spent in the seventh round, giving more ground to Can and occasionally retreating to the ropes while Can poured on the punches. The later rounds continued in the same fashion, as Robles was unable to keep Can away from him.
Can continued to swamp Robles in activity until the conclusion of the fight, looking increasingly dominant. Robles survived the constant pressure from Can and made it to the final bell, but it was clear that he lost the fight after the end of the 12th.
In the bout before the co-main event, welterweight prospect Rashidi “Speedy” Ellis won a unanimous decision in a rematch against Eddie “E-boy” Gomez. The official scorecards read 100-90 and 99-91 (X2), all in favor of Ellis.
Ellis and Gomez first met in December of 2016, with Ellis winning the fight via first round knockout. This time around, Gomez managed to survive until the final bell, although he was unable to do much else.
The 26-year-old Ellis (22-0, 14 KO), who had been off for over a year, looked sharp in the early rounds. Ellis simply outworked Gomez, throwing a variety of punches and combinations while appearing to sweep the first four rounds of the fight.
Gomez (23-4, 13 KO) turned up the heat in the fifth, which was probably the round he won on two of the three judges’ scorecards. However, he did not really build on the momentum he established in that round, as Rashidi came back to clearly win the sixth.
With the first half of the fight in the bag, Ellis was able to comfortably cruise through the last half to win a unanimous decision.