The Blythe, Calif., native kept the juggling act going in the months that followed and still managed to defeat Machado in the rematch, as he delivered a third-round KO performance in June.
Here, during Hispanic Heritage Month, Cancio (21-4-2, 16 KOs) speaks with DAZN about his Mexican-American pride as a world champion, the Mexican boxers he grew up watching and how his grandfather is vicariously living through him.
‘I LOOKED UP TO A LOT OF THE MEXICAN FIGHTERS’
By Andrew Cancio
I pretty much try to represent my Hispanic heritage every time I fight. I’ve got a lot of family that’s in Mexico still. I’m Mexican-American, so Hispanic Heritage Month is part of my culture, it’s part of my family’s culture. That’s why I have that come-forward style. I’ve always fought that way. I don’t know, I guess it’s just in me to have that Mexican blood in there.
It means a great deal to me to be a Mexican-American world champion. There was a point in time where I never thought I was going to reach my dream or goal to be a world champion. My mom lived in Mexico for nine years, so I might never have gotten the title shot being in Mexico.
Now that I’ve become world champion — and the way I accomplished it, too, against an undefeated Puerto Rican knocking everyone out — it means the world to me. I’m glad that Machado took the rematch. That way, I showcased my skills and showed everyone it wasn’t a fluke. I was blessed and fortunate to do two fights.
Puerto Rican vs. Mexican boxers is one of the biggest rivalries, and the way I stopped him in the second fight — pretty much the same way I did in the first fight — it made it that much better. It was an awesome feeling.
My buddy showed me a video of how loud it was at that fight, at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, Calif. Definitely, Mexican fans are some of the best. They go out there and support full-throttle.
Growing up, the family would take turns ordering the pay-per-views: Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad; Johnny Tapia too. We’d alternate houses and would all watch boxing together.
I started boxing when I was 13. I followed one of my friends from school there. I had no idea we had a boxing gym in Blythe. He told me to go with him one day, and that’s how I walked into the gym.
It was right next to the recreational center, and there was no boxing mat or anything. It was just a small gym right next door, attached to the rec center. I walked in one day and I never walked out. I’ve been boxing since.
I looked up to a lot of the Mexican fighters: Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez. I’ve been a fan of all the Mexican fighters. I pretty much looked up to all of them and tried to pick something apart from each one of their styles.
Back in the old times, a lot of Mexican fighters, like Julio Cesar Chavez, were big body punchers; come forward, move their head. I don’t have that Floyd Mayweather Jr. style. I don’t think I could ever fight that way. But yeah, I have a come-forward type of style, a Mexican style. I love coming forward, throwing to the body.
It means the world to me to be along the line of Mexican-American world champions. This means the world to my grandpa. This was his dream, to become a world champion. He boxed in Mexico, and my grandma tells me all the time that he’s so proud, and that was his dream as a child — and he was watching his grandson accomplish what he wanted to do.
— As told to Mark Lelinwalla