By Jeff Zimmerman at ringside

In a rematch of their 2017 bout, Rene Alvarado (32-9, 21 KOs) out of Managua, Nicaragua squared off once again against Richard Gutierrez (25-3-1, 20 KOs), from Maracaibo, Venezuela, a fight Alvarado won by knockout. Gutierrez, though, was more than up for the challenge this time around as he wobbled Alvarado in round one and then dropped him twice in round three with a barrage of punches and again in round twelve to win a unanimous decision 113-112 on all three scorecards. The knockdown in the twelfth proved to be the difference between winning and losing for Gutierrez who takes home the WBA super featherweight title with the revenge victory against Alvarado.

Gutierrez came out strong and took the fight right to Alvarado, who showed championship heart to survive those early rounds. By the fourth round, Alvarado was fully recovered and had Gutierrez on the retreat landing his combinations. Before round six, Gutierrez had to deal with a cut on his left eye that was reviewed by the doctor and allowed to continue. From the seventh through the eleventh, the action slowed down for both fighters, although Alvarado was the aggressor. Then came the twelfth round, as Gutierrez scored the final knockdown that secured his win as he became the WBA super featherweight champion.

“I am so happy for this victory,” said Gutierrez. “I did this for my mother. There’s not much more I can say. I had to look for the knockout. I knew I had to do that to win. I want to thank my manager Rafael Moron, the WBA and Golden Boy. This is for Venezuela and for my children.”

For Alvarado, who has been fighting since 2008, this was a tough loss, as he has been in the ring with some of the best of this generation including Rocky Juarez, Yuriorkis Gamboa and Joseph Diaz. He avenged a loss to Andrew Cancio in 2015 and then beat him in a major upset in 2019 to win the belt in a bloodbath. Perhaps we will see a trilogy between the he and Gutierrez. Alvarado failed to take the title back to Nicaragua like his brother Felix did right before him.