Andrew Cancio's first title defense as the sole WBA super featherweight champion appears to be set.
First reported by Boxing Scene, Cancio will defend his WBA title against mandatory challenger Rene Alvarado on an upcoming Golden Boy Promotions card on November 23. The fight will headline the event, to be streamed on DAZN, taking place at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California.
This will be Cancio's second defense of the belt since he won it by knocking out Alberto Machado in February. Cancio, who held the WBA's "Regular" version of the title, would later defend the title this summer when he stopped Machado in a rematch. Since then, Gervonta Davis would go on to vacate the WBA "Super" title in order to move up to lightweight, leaving Cancio as the only WBA world champion at super featherweight.
A fight against Alvarado was one Cancio had been looking forward to, even before the rematch against Machado. Cancio previously told Fightful that he was going to have a fight against Alvarado given that the two share history in the ring and that Alvarado won a title eliminator against Carlos Morales last year. In their first fight back in 2015, Cancio defeated Alvarado by stopping him in the eighth round.
Also on the card is Chinese boxing star Can Xu defending his WBA "Regular" featherweight title against unbeaten contender Manny Robles III. Xu first won the title back in January with a dominant win over Jesus Rojas in Texas, but then defended the belt in May against Shun Kubo on a boxing card in China. Robles has won all 18 of his pro bouts, capturing the NABF title in June 2018. Robles is also currently ranked No. 4 by the WBA at 126 pounds.
