From the moment he donned his first pair of gloves, Nicaragua’s Rene ‘Gemelo’ Alvarado longed to follow in the footsteps of the late, great Alexis Arguello.
With his first career title fight comes the best way imaginable to honor his lifelong boxing idol.
The 30-year old junior lightweight contender is all in for his upcoming rematch with 130-pound titlist Andrew ‘Chango’ Cancio (21-4-2, 16KOs), which takes place this weekend at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California (Saturday, DAZN, 7:30pm ET). More so than a chance at avenging a past defeat and equally as important as joining twin brother Felix Alvarado on the title stage, comes the cultural significance of the fight date.
“When they first told me the fight was going to be on Nov. 23, it was a dream come true,” Alvarado (31-8. 20KOs) told BoxingScene.com of his first career title fight. “Felix and I have always dreamed about being the first twins from Nicaragua to become world champions. To win the title on the day of Alexis Arguello’s first world championship would be an amazing honor.”
Arguello’s storied Hall of Fame career including championship wins at featherweight, junior lightweight and lightweight. It took two tries to claim title status, overcoming a decision defeat to Panama’s Ernesto Marcel in their Feb. 1974 featherweight title fight to win that very belt nine months later, scoring a 13th round stoppage win over the great Ruben Olivares nine months later—Nov. 23, 1974—at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Interestingly, that very same version of the featherweight title will be at stake this Saturday, as China’s Can Xu (17-2, 3KOs) defends versus locally based unbeaten contender Manny Robles III (18-0, 8KOs) in the evening’s chief support.
“The signs are everywhere from God telling me this is my time to become world champion,” insists Alvarado, who suffered an 8th round stoppage to Cancio in Dec. 2015 as part of a 4-6 stretch that has since given way to an eight-fight win streak. “I have been motivated ever since watching Felix win his (junior flyweight) world title last year. This is my opportunity to join him, and to honor the memory of the great Alexis Arguello in bringing the world title home to Nicaragua.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
