By Charles Brun: John Ryder’s team are planning on contacting the WBA to have him reinstalled as the mandatory for World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Callum Smith due to the controversial scoring of their fight last Saturday night, according to @BoxingNewsED.
Ryder (28-5, 16 KOs) appeared to do enough to win the fight, but the three judges all scored it for the unbeaten Smith (27-0, 19 KOs). The scores were 116-112, 117-111, 116-111.
Smith vs. Ryder wasn’t controversial enough
It’s unlikely the WBA will grant Ryder his wish to be installed as the mandatory again. The results of the fight weren’t controversial to the point where all fans were calling it a robbery. There were still a fair share of boxing fan that felt that Callum rightfully won the fight.
He did land the harder shots, and fought better in the first half of the fight than Ryder did. The scoring was obviously way too wide for the fight that took place, but Smith could have edged it
If there wasn’t so much money at stake for Callum in moving on to bigger fights, he probably would give Ryder a rematch. Callum is trying to secure his financial future while he’s still on top, and the way to do that is to ignore Ryder and go after a fight against Canelo Alvarez, Gennadiy Golovkin or Billy Joe Saunders.
Canelo and GGG are the guys that Callum wants most of all. If he can’t get a fight against either of them, then he’ll try for a unification bout against WBO champion Saunders.
Assuming the WBA rejects Ryder’s team attempt to have him made the mandatory, he’ll have to slowly work his way back to the mandatory status again. Ryder, 31, is ranked #4 with the WBC, but that’ll probably change for the worse due to his loss to Callum.
Ryder doubts he’ll get another shot at Smith
‘The Gorilla’ Ryder took the fight to the 29-year-old Smith, and wore him down with his pressure, and inside game. There was a big difference in punching power between the two fighters, but Ryder was able to make up for that by landing a lot of shots. Ryder had the better engine, and he was able to keep fighting at a fast pace long after the 6’3″ Callum had worn down.
“I don’t know if I’ll get another chance with him because he’s looking for the big fights with Canelo or Golovkin,” Ryder told skysports.com. “I believe that I won, and my team do. But complete strangers on the street are saying I won.
“We were chuffed at the performance, angry at the decision. It’s a shame that my dream didn’t come true on that night, because it should have done.”
What further dims Ryder’s chances of the WBA granting him mandatory status is Eddie Hearn is already talking about moving Canelo on. WBA likely won’t want to slow down Hearn’s plans, no matter how controversial the Smith vs. Ryder fight was.
Ryder would have a lot of problems if he challenged WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez or IBF champion Caleb Plant. Those champions are more complete fighters than Callum, and they would make Ryder miserable.