Boxing

Andrew Cancio, A Story of Never Giving Up

WBA world super featherweight champion Andrew Cancio’s story will forever be glorified, but may not be duplicated, ever.

The hard-luck professional found himself fighting to a draw in his pro debut. In his eleventh fight, he lost a majority decision to journeyman boxer Carlos Vinan on a Top Rank card in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For those who don’t know the business of boxing, that would seemingly make Cancio, an opponent – a guy who had to fight elite prospect or world-class talent with no easy fights.

Cancio would rebound fighting limited opposition in hopes of getting a big fight, but would still struggle as he to Roger Gonzalez in 2012 and Ronny Rios in 2014.

Cancio’s career appeared to be done in 2016 in which Joseph Diaz Jr. stopped Cancio on the televised pay-per-view portion of the Canelo Alvarez versus Liam Smith from Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Cancio announced that he was retired after his loss to Joseph Diaz Jr and Cancio looked to be another guy the sport of boxing helped and hurt, who had to move on.

Cancio returned last April with a new manager, Ray Chaparro, a manager from Oxnard, Ca, who is best known as the former manager of Daniel “Twitch” Franco, a fighter who suffered a traumatic brain injury during a fight against Jose Haro a few years ago and seemingly had left the boxing industry after the unforeseeable tragedy.

Cancio now working as a construction technician for the Southern California Gas Company and was one of the first to respond to the Thomas Fire.

The 30-year-old now world champion wakes up early to run, works a full day of work and complete a boxing workout as well in the evening, then does it all over again.

Coming in as an opponent Cancio knocked out heavily touted amateur Aidar Sharibayev. Cancio would return in his following bout to win a hard-fought victory over durable veteran Dardan Zenunaj.

Cancio was back as a professional boxer and had put himself in a good position and then it happened…

Cancio got the call to fight Albert Machado and after getting dropped in the first round, got off the canvas Cancio sent Machado to the canvas in third round only to stop him in the fourth.

The aged veteran, who seemingly was going to be fodder for a young world champion had upset him, and a manager seemingly out of the sport of boxing, had lead Cancio to a world title.

The result will be glorified and told as a fairy-tale, but for Cancio it was more than likely long and exhausting. A fighter, who always gave an honest effort in the ring, saw the fruits of his labor manifest into, what every prize fighter wants — a world title

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Lukie Ketelle

Lukie Ketelle