Who Won the Weekend? The Guy For Whom Boxing Is His Side Job

You hear a good deal about “side hustles” these days, as one and even two incomes in a family aren't enough to keep households afloat as the rising tide of lodging and health care costs, coupled with the negligible wage growth, force adults to keep looking to earn more loot. Well, I never see boxing listed as a good potential side vocation, but maybe after Andre Cancio's Saturday night outing, “boxing” will make the lost for viable side job opportunities…

I asked the NYF Squad to chime in on “Who Won the Weekend”; here are these hustlers' (in a good way!) responses:

Said Abe Gonzalez: “Gervonta “Tank” Davis won the weekend! After having over eight thousand in attendance at Dignity Health in Carson, which included celebrities and athletes, he dismantled Hugo Ruiz by way of knockout. This event was setup perfectly as a launching pad to stardom and Davis is more than ready for the next level.”

“Oh there's no question Floyd Mayweather won the weekend,” said John Gatling.

“The only thing he loves more than “Money” are the bright lights flavored in lime colored linens I'm surprised he kept in the closet. We didn't get any closer to discovering the growth of Gervonta “Tank” Davis following a shockingly easy 1st round disposal of Hugo Ruiz, because Floyd decided to Kobe Bryant the mic like #24 used to hog the ball at nearby Staples Center. Let's hope the “leftovers” quip made its way to Vasyl Lomachenko, so that TMT can get a little closer to producing a superfight for his label of a fight promotional outfit. Afterall, when the likes of Drake, Lil Wayne, Meek Mill, Odell Beckham Jr, Antonio Brown, Birdman and Jeezy show up to witness Tank fight a late replacement, it's about time to give fans a Grammy in the form of Loma V Tank.”

“Andrew Cancio won the weekend,” said Kelsey McCarson. “Cancio was a huge underdog to undefeated junior lightweight Alberto Machado, but he weathered a round one knockdown and stormed back to stop Machado for a secondary world title. Cancio used hard body punches to drop Machado three times in round four and picked up the biggest win of his professional career. What an amazing performance!”

What does Gabe Oppenheim opine?

“Winner:

The small city of 10,000 people from which former underdog and new super-featherweight champ Andrew Cancio hails — Blythe, California. Blythe is a bare place — or, as the Desert Sun newspaper calls it, “a truck-stop town on the California-Arizona border, the only civilization from the Coachella Valley to Phoenix.”

This is its dusty, old logo (see below).

But Blythe turned out Saturday night for its homeboy and he took a belt most improbably, allowing them all to revel in a win for the little guy, almost in defiance of their municipal origins, See, Thomas H. Blythe was a banker and a water-rights-baron. And while my limited historical knowledge gives me no reason to think he tried always to keep down the little man, he does sound, in sketch form, like a cross between the villain of “Chinatown” and SNL's Abraham H. Parnassus.

When Blythe died in 1883, his estate was reported be worth $6,000,000, or $150 million accounting for inflation — an insane figure that seems more insane in light of Blythe's leaving no will.

Over the next six years, claimants to that fortune came to California courts from all over the country to demand a chunk. Long story short: Its ultimate disposition to various parties clearly hasn't trickled down to the residents of tiny Blythe today.

That's why Andrew Cancio has spent half his weeks not in boxing training but in construction for a gas company — that's why his neighbors feel such tremendous pride in their boy — they are of meager means and can make it up only in communal esprit d'corps

Hails the underdogs of Blythe, and war Cancio!”

And what is your vote, Jab Hook Joe Healy? “Tank” Davis won the weekend at 02:59 of the 1st round. Have we seen something new in this performance from the belt-holder made by “Money?” No biggie, he's had seven other 1st round KOs, right? But Jab noticed a certain Schadenfreude, coupled with a level of focus and fresh punching accuracy that thrilled the eye, but threatened to sicken the stomach. Gerry Davis won the more than the weekend in Carson, Ca. With a stellar performance, he did a laser-like, 1st round demolition of a decent opponent, thereby also winning the latest pissing contest against his mentor/tormentor Floyd Mayweather Jr, “…get off my back Floyd!

Wait…Just watched Andrew Cancio get up off the canvas in the 1st to come back in the 2nd stronger, and then decimate Alberto Machado in the 3rd and 4th. “El Chango” finished Machado off with thudding body shots. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Jab thinks Cancio mave have stolen the weekend from “Tank” Davis.”

“Tank Davis was the winner … until he wasn't,” said Hamza Ahmed. “About 20 minutes after he'd stopped late replacement Hugo Ruiz for the WBA “Super” Super featherweight championship, Andrew Cancio sensationally stopped undefeated Alberto Machado, also for the WBA “Super” Super featherweight championship. Machado was a massive underdog and Cancio's victory over him will surely be listed amongst the year end's Upset of the Year lists. 
What a beautiful story Cancio is. Waking up at 4 30 AM to run, going to work at the SoCal Gas Company from 6 30 AM until 3 PM, coming back and sparring in the evening, retiring in 2016 after a loss to Joseph Diaz Jr, brought in to be steamrolled by Machado, dropped hard in the 1st…instead he flips the script and writes his own Cinderella fairytale. 
Beautiful man, just beautiful. Another reminder that the beauty of boxing doesn't lie at the top of the sport, an area now contaminated with an incurable cancer. In fact, Floyd Mayweather provided us with a brutal outlook at what goes on at the top, stating Tank Davis won't fight Lomachenko until “later”, later being when Lomachenko needs a cane to enter the ring. Instead, guys like Cancio and Caleb Plant, Richard Commey, Adam Kownacki, Can Xu etc before him, remind us the middle of the sport is where boxing truly shines. Underdogs, upsets and fights happening when they're supposed to.

Me, I'm going with the guy who toils at the 9 to 5 and then working his side job, snags a world title against a pretty decent pugilist. Andrew Cancio won the weekend on my card, too…