By Dan Ambrose: Canelo Alvarez will be looking to defeat the UK’s best super middleweights John Ryder on May 6th in defense of his four-belt undisputed championship on DAZN at the 60,000-seat Akron Stadium in Guadalupe, Mexico.
This will be the fifth British fighter Canelo has faced in the last seven years, and he’ll be hoping to keep his record perfect against these fighters by adding Ryder’s name to his win column. Canelo is 4-0 against the Brits, having beaten these excellent fighters:
- Rocky Fielding
- Liam Smith
- Billy Joe Saunders
- Callum Smith
Can Ryder break Canelo’s streak against British fighters on May 6th, or will he be bagged just like the other four that tried & failed to defeat the famous Mexican star?
As bad as the 32-year-old Canelo looked last year against Gennadiy Golovkin and Dmitry Bivol, you have to say that Ryder has a heck of a shot at defeating him. However, with their fight taking place in Canelo’s backyard in Guadalajara, Mexico, it’s going to require a special performance from Ryder for him to have his hand raised.
There’s no mystery what Ryder must do for him to beat Alvarez. He’s got to put pressure on Canelo, force him to fight the entire three minutes of every round without allowing him any rest breaks and keep him pinned with his back against the ropes in a defensive shell.
Unfortunately, The boxing fans are less than pleased that Canelo (58-2-1, 39 KOs) selected ‘The Gorilla’ Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs) over the arguably more dangerous David Benavidez and David Morrell Jr, but he’s got an excuse.
Ryder is Alvarez’s WBO mandatory challenger, and if he didn’t defend against him next, he would have had to give up his WBO title, and he didn’t wish to lose the belt.
The World Boxing Council & WBA could make things easier for Benavidez & Morrell to get a chance to fight Canelo if they would order those fights, but for some reason, they haven’t pulled the trigger on those fights as the WBO did with Ryder.
“The fight things I need in my bag for my training are my shoes, my boxing shoes because I need to be comfortable to train,” said Canelo to DAZN about what he needs for him to train.
“My gloves to throw punches, and my clothes and my vitamins. I need to be strong and have the energy to train hard. My team is the most important in my training because this [Ryder fight] is going to be very difficult. So my team is going to be the best thing,” said Canelo.
