By Jake Tiernan: Eddie Hearn is hoping to wrap up a deal soon between Canelo Alvarez and John Ryder to make an announcement for May 6th in Guadalajara, Mexico.
This will be a homecoming for the former four-division world champion Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) will be returning to Mexico to fight in front of his fans after fighting outside of the country since 2011.
Canelo needs to make a defense of his undisputed super middleweight championship against his WBO mandatory Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs), but it’s mostly what he wants to do. Ryder is slow, lacks power, and isn’t much of a threat to beating Canelo.
The 32-year-old Canelo is coming off wrist surgery, and he needs an opponent that won’t push him the way one of the better fighters at 168 would. Hearn wants Canelo to take this fight because he promotes Ryder.
Ryder to get a career payday
Also, Hearn would be helping out the 34-year-old Ryder, who has never fought a superstar before, and he’ll have the opportunity to set himself up for life with the big payday he’ll get from the Canelo fight.
The only downside of the Canelo-Ryder fight is for the Americans, who will have another lackluster opponent for Canelo after watching him take a semi-tune-up in his last fight against the faded 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin, who looked almost elderly in his third trilogy match last September.
Canelo vs. Ryder announcement to come soon
“The main focus now is Canelo Alvarez on May 6th and Abu Dhabi on June 3rd. The May 6th announcement should come sooner,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV. “Both of those are very close to an announcement.
“That’s the fight that we’d like to make,” said Hearn when asked if John Ryder is the opponent that he wants to match against Canelo on May 6th in Guadalajara, Mexico.
“We’re obviously in deep negotiations with everybody to make that [Ryder] happen. Saul said Guadalajara on May 6th is his next fight. So hopefully, we get an announcement really soon, and that’s John Ryder,” said Hearn about his hopes to make an announcement for the Canelo vs. Ryder soon.
It would be good for the fans if Canelo made a u-turn and chose instead to take on an opponent that U.S boxing fans want to see him fight by facing one of these fighters:
David Benavidez
Dmitry Bivol
Artur Beterbiev
Jermall Charlo