By Dan Ambrose: David Benavidez predicts a tough night for Canelo Alvarez when he defends his undisputed super middleweight championship against John Ryder on May 6th in their DAZN pay-per-view headliner at the Estadio Akron, in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Benavidez isn’t sure if Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) can return to his fine form in 2021 when he became the undisputed 168-lb championship.
That version of Canelo may be gone forever, and what’s left is the remnants of the fighter he once was, getting outboxed from A to B by Dmitry Bivol and nearly losing to a 100% shot Gennadiy Golovkin last September.
For many, Canelo’s performance against Golovkin was more troubling than his total schooling by the superior boxer Bivol.
At least Bivol, one can give Alvarez a slight pass due to him facing a larger fighter, but the way he struggled against totally over-the-hill 40-year-old Golovkin, that fight showed that Canelo is past it at 32 and won’t be coming back to the fighter he was in 2021 or at any earlier point.
“It’s a good fight. I can’t say nothing. If I didn’t have this fight with Caleb Plant, I’d be mad,” said David Benavidez to Fighthype when asked about his thoughts on Canelo Alvarez fighting John Ryder.
“But since I got my fight, he [Canelo] said he wanted a tune-up against John Ryder, but John Ryder is still a tough customer. What’s most important is he’s doing the fight in Mexico. I think he wanted to get out for that. It’s going to be big for Mexico.
“I don’t know, Benavidez said when asked if Canelo could return to his excellent form in 2021 when he captured the undisputed championship with three outstanding performances.
“However he looks, that’s him. Yeah, he’s a great fighter. I think so, but I’m not sure because John Ryder is a tough customer,” said Benavidez when asked if Canelo would knock out Ryder. “He fought Daniel Jacobs and Callum Smith.
“I think Canelo will beat him, but he’ll have a tough time, but it’s going to be a great fight anyway. He’s a tough customer, though. I’m excited to see it.
“We’ll see. That sounds good, so we’ll probably do that,” said Benavidez when asked if he’ll be at the Canelo-Ryder fight in Guadalajara, Mexico. “That’ll be nice, so we’ll see if we can make that happen.”
