Rene Alvarado To Stay Busy Against Eusebio Osejo on April 26

By Francisco Salazar

Junior lightweight contender Rene Alvarado will return to the ring in a stay-busy bout against veteran Eusebio Osejo on Apr. 26, manager Carlos Ruiz told Boxingscene Wednesday afternoon.

The eight-round bout will place at the Nuevo Gimnasio Nicario in his hometown of Managua, Nicaragua.

In his last bout on Dec. 8, Alvarado (30-8, 20 knockouts) defeated contender Carlos Morales by unanimous decision. With the victory, Alvarado became the mandatory challenger for the WBA, which is currently held by Andrew Cancio, who knocked out Alberto Machado to win the title.

Alvarado was sitting at ringside for the fight.

There were preliminary discussions of Alvarado facing Cancio, if Machado would not exercise his rematch clause. It looked as though Alvarado would land the fight against Cancio, as Machado was having second thoughts. However, the former champ ultimately decided to go ahead with the rematch with Cancio as previously reported by BoxingScene.com.

“We scheduled the Apr. 26 fight in Managua to keep Alvarado ready for that Cancio fight,” Ruiz told Boxingscene. “We were told that Machado decided to go ahead with the rematch with Cancio. Regardless, we will be ready if Machado backs out of the fight or he cannot get down to 130 pounds.”

Alvarado, who is the twin brother of IBF junior flyweight titleholder Felix Alvarado, has won his last six bouts since a decision loss to Yuriorkis Gamboa in March of 2017.

The fight against Osejo is a rematch of their clash in October of 2015, which also took place in Managua, a fight Alvarado won by knockout in the opening round.

Osejo (30-22-3, 8 KOs), who resides in Chinandega, Nicaragua, has won his last two bouts after going winless in his previous nine bouts.

Also on the Nice Boxing card, former world flyweight title challenger Keyvin Lara (26-3-1, 9 KOs), who lost by decision to Yanga Sigqibo in his last bout on Dec. 7, will face Jose Rizo (7-11-1, 1 KO) in a six-round bout.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing