By William Mackay: 34-year-old Ryan Rhodes (45-4, 31 KO’s) will be traveling a long way from his native UK to take on one of the biggest sluggers in the game in WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (36-0-1, 26 KO’s) on June 18th at the Arena VFG in Guadalajara, Mexico. This is going to be a home fight for the young 20-year-old Alvarez, who will have a huge crowd cheering him on and booing Rhodes every step of the way.
This isn’t going to be a situation for the weak punching Rhodes, because he’s not equipped with the kind of power needed to stand and trade with Alvarez for any length of time before breaking down under the strain. Rhodes has been considered to be a mover throughout his career, but if you’ve looked at his recent fights you’ll notice a definite slowing down of his feet to the point where Rhodes is little more than a shuffling plodder-type fighter.
He doesn’t have the same inside fighting skills that Mexican fighters possess and without the power or the movement needed to keep his head above water, Alvarez is going to knock Rhodes out in short order. I wish it was another outcome because this fight would be so much more interesting if Rhodes could stand up to Alvarez and make the fight interesting but he can’t. There is a lot of talk of Rhodes being able to compete with Alvarez from Rhodes’ fans but the reality is Rhodes doesn’t have the power or the wheels needed to compete in this fight and it’s going to be painfully obvious soon enough after the fight starts.
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