BLOWING UP
‘Explosive’ Machado can’t handle the pace against Cancio, writes Jack Hirsch
ALBERTO MACHADO was thought to have superstar potential, but was shockingly dethroned by the unfancied
Andrew Cancio in the third defence of his WBA secondary super-featherweight strap. The Puerto Rican, extraordinarily big for his weight class, had conjured up memories of Alexis Arguello, both in style and power. How could we not make comparisons when you consider that Machado’s nickname of “Explosive” is nearly identical to that of the magnificent Nicaraguan known as “The Explosive Thin Man”. Midway through the first round, it appeared certain that the unbeaten Machado’s journey to greatness would continue, for at least this night. A left uppercut dropped Cancio, who just barely beat the count. Cancio then rallied briefly to make it out of the round.
Mysteriously, Machado then started to fall apart in the second and was hit frequently. Urged on by his home crowd at the Fantasy Springs Casino (Golden Boy Promotions), Cancio, a capable fighter who holds a day job working for a Southern California gas company, kept firing away. No pun intended, but Machado simply ran out of gas. At the end of the third, the San Juan southpaw slumped on his stool, completely spent. His trainer, Freddie Roach, appeared shocked and initially said nothing, before uttering instructions.
Machado took a pair of nine-counts from rights to the body in the fourth. Only he knows how much the blows hurt, but it was apparent he had checked out mentally. Ventura’s Cancio, on the verge of pulling off the unthinkable, rushed in and attacked downstairs again. Machado retreated instead of trying to fight back. Machado fully cooperated in going down for the third time in the round, resulting in referee Raul Caiz Jnr stopping it at 2-16. Cancio’s victory was inspirational – a true Rocky story, so to speak. WBC super-bantamweight champion
Rey Vargas survived a second-round scare when a left hook from Barranquilla, Colombia’s Franklin Manzanilla
dropped him for a five-count. The Mexican, making the fourth defence of his crown, quickly regained his composure and continued to box well the rest of the way in taking a unanimous decision that was scored 117-108 across the board by judges Lou Moret, Dennis O’connell and Pat Russell. But it turned into a more physically taxing affair than he anticipated. Vargas, from Otumba, suffered cuts over both eyes that the ringside physicians were monitoring carefully.
The Venezuela-born Manzanilla was animated, rushing in and trying to turn it into a brawl. Referee Caiz deducted a point from him in both the seventh and eight rounds for using his head and shoving Vargas on numerous occasions. It did not matter to Manzanilla, who knew he could not win on points anyway. Vargas’ jab and quick combinations were scoring throughout, but he had to work hard the whole way, finishing the fight in much worse shape than the challenger.
Californians Joseph Diaz (Downey) and Charles Huerta (Paramount) are close friends, but did not fight as such. Their 10-rounder was a rugged affair won by southpaw Diaz on a unanimous decision scored 99-91 by judges Rudy Barragan, Sergio Caiz and Tony Crebs. Edward Hernandez Snr refereed.
The Machado-cancio clash did not provide the only upset of the night. Earlier, touted lightweight Oscar Duarte
(Parral) lost a 10-round split verdict to fellow Mexican Adrian Estrella
(Monterrey). It was a debatable decision to say the least. I agreed with Mr Barragan’s 97-93 score for Duarte, but he was overruled by Sergio Caiz’s 96-94 and Mr Russell’s 98-92 margins for Estrella. It was a very difficult fight to score. Duarte was the aggressor, but not always effective. Estrella boxed well from the outside at times, but was cautious for long stretches. Wayne Hedgpeth refereed.
Tureano Johnson was another favourite who did not fare well. The Brooklyn-based Bahaman was coming off a significant layoff and was hoping to ease back gently, but when all was said and done, he was fortunate to come away with a split eight-round draw against Mexico’s Fernando Castaneda
(Aguascalientes). Mr Russell had Johnson ahead 77-75, while Mr O’connell tallied 77-75 for Castenada, and Sergio Caiz marked 76-76. Mr Hedgpeth refereed.
THE VERDICT Unexpected results are the order of the day on this show.