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Can he do it again? Andrew Cancio meets Alberto Machado in rematch

"Cinderella Man" Andew Cancio goes for two in a row against Alberto Machado this Friday night

By John J. Raspanti

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Andrew C Alberto M
Andrew C Alberto M

It was offer he couldn’t refuse.

 

For journeyman Andrew Cancio, this was, no matter how it turned out, his moment. A professional boxer since he was 18, Cancio, who also works full-time at a gas company, toiled in virtual obscurity, finally losing to contender Jo Jo Diaz in 2016.

 

His boxing career appeared over, but after laying off for 18 months, and with the support of his kids, Cancio returned to the ring in 2018, capturing the WBA Intercontinental Super Featherweight title in what was called an upset.

 

More importantly, Cancio earned a top-20 ranking, and a contract with Golden Boy Promotions.

 

His time had come. He waited for the call. Near the end of the year, the phone rang. Undefeated and reigning WBA super featherweight champion Alberto Machado was on the lookout for an opponent. He needed a tune-up bout before something big at Madison Square Garden. Cancio was offered the fight. He accepted without hesitation.

 

The fight went down last February at Fantasy Springs and Casino in Indio, CA, a place where Cancio, felt comfortable, having fought there nine times before. The arena was filled with fans and co-workers hoping, but not really expecting, Cancio would win a world title.

 

The fight time odds listed him as 14-1 underdog. The pressure of the moment hit Cancio hard. He felt jittery as he stepped into the ring. Things didn’t go well for Cancio (20-4-1, 15 KOs) in the opening stanza. An uppercut from the five-ten-inch Machado felled him.

 

He barely beat the fatal count of 10, but battled back in the final seconds of the round. The knockdown calmed him down. Giving up four inches in height, Cancio dug to the body. He seemed to draw strength from his home crowd, scoring consistently.

 

A huge right wobbled Machado. In round four, with blood leaking from his left eye, Cancio strafed Machado with more bodyshots. The defending champion was weakening. Cancio stalked and rocked, digging downstairs until Machado went down three times-forcing the referee to wave the fight off. Cancio, in tears, went to the top rope of the ring and screamed as loud as he could.

 

Soon after, the word ‘fluke’ peppered discussions of the match. Machado claimed that losing weight had left him with little resistance on fight night. He excised the rematch clause in the original contract.

 

The date was set for June 21 at the same venue.

 

“I hope Cancio is enjoying his time as a champion,” said Machado at a press conference announcing the rematch last month. “I’m going in with bad intentions to bring that championship belt back to Puerto Rico.”

 

Cancio admitted during a recent media conference call that talk of his victory as some kind of an accident bothered him.

 

“A little bit, it does,” Cancio said. “A lot of people are saying it was a fluke or it was because he was weight drained-that’s the reason why I won the first fight. But it’s only pushing me to train even harder, to go in there and do what I did the first time around, shut these critics up.”

 

Machado is confident he’ll win the rematch.

 

“June twenty-one will be different,” he said. “I’m training with that in mind to walk away with the victory.”

 

Win or lose, Cancio will rest easy. When his chance to go for the brass ring was offered, he went for it. The man is a real fighter.

 

 

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