Andrew Cancio is no longer set to resume his career.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that the former secondary WBA junior lightweight titlist was pulled from a planned eight-round clash versus Jonathan de Pina. An undisclosed injury suffered late in training camp left Cancio unable to proceed with their bout originally due to take place this Thursday at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts.
The rest of the show will move forward. Irish junior middleweight prospect Callum Walsh headlines the card, though also versus a new opponent. As previously reported by Boxing Scene, Walsh (5-0, 4KOs) will now face Ohio’s Wesley Tucker (15-4, 9KOs) who replaced an injured Leonardo di Stefano Ruiz on barely one week’s notice.
Cancio (21-5-2, 16KOs) has not fought since November 2019, when he suffered a seventh-round stoppage loss to Rene Alvarado at Fantasy Springs Casino Resort in Indio, California.
The working-class hero from Ventura, California won the WBA ‘Regular’ 130-pound title in the same venue with an upset fourth-round knockout of unbeaten Alberto Machado in February 2019. He repeated the feat with a third-round knockout in their June 2019 rematch, also at Fantasy Springs which has housed seven of his last eight fights.
Cancio signed with Top Rank in 2020, but was forced to withdraw from several bouts due to a variety of reasons.
The last attempt to get him in the ring under the Top Rank banner was when he was due to face then-unbeaten Gabriel Flores on a February 2021 ESPN show from MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas. Cancio was forced to pull out of the fight five weeks prior due to a lingering back injury, having fallen off the radar altogether before attempting to resurface on the upcoming pre-St. Patrick’s Day show.
It is unclear when—or if—Cancio will return to the ring.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox