By Elisinio Castillo

Rene "El Gemelo" Alvarado was a few meters away from the ring when Puerto Rican Alberto Machado was knocked out hard and lost his WBA "regular" 130-pound world title.

The unexpected win by Andrew Cancio was a result that completely changed the plans of Machado.

Alvarado, who is the mandatory challenger to the WBA 'regular' belt, was expected to face Machado on a potential June date in New York.

Instead of Machado winning, he was battered, dropped three times, and stopped in the fourth round.

Even after scoring a flash knockdown in the first round, Machado seemed to have nothing in the tank.

There is a rematch clause, which Machado may exercise.

"This kind of surprises people. We enjoy an attractive fight, but boxing fans like it when these things happen, although nobody expected Cancio to knock Machado out early," said Alvarado to TN8.

"We fell behind with our fight because Machado has the option of a rematch, but the Puerto Rican may move up to the next division and we would enter to dispute the world title,.

If the rematch is given, Alvarado - with 30 wins and 8 defeats - would have to wait to fight for the first time in his career for world championship. But if the Puerto Rican puncher decides to move up to 135 pounds, everything indicates that Alvarez may challenge Cancio in May in Las Vegas.

"I do not take any merit away from Cancio, but I saw Machado as being weak and worn down, his round was the one where Cancio went down but even then Cancio closed the round well," Alvarado said.

 Cancio knocked out Rene Alvarado in 2015 also in Indo California, so they are rivals who already know each other.

"He is a fighter that we know, it would be an attractive fight, he caught me with a very good shot in 2015 and he staggered me, my stability was not very good and the referee did not allow me to fall, but now I have more experience to face him," emphasized Alvarado.

This 2019 also ends the contract of "El Gemelo" with Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, however René remains the # 1 ranking in the WBA and there are strong chances that Nicaragua will have one more fight with him of the world title.