By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez is ten days out from putting all his gold on the line for the title defense of his super middleweight championship against John Ryder on May 6th at the Estadio Akron, Zapopan, in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs) might not seem like much to the average fan when comparing him to the upper-elite level 168-pounders, David Morrell Jr and David Benavidez, but he’s the equivalent of kryptonite against Canelo (58-2-1, 39 KOs), who struggles against fighters that exert tons of pressure and throw a lot of punches.
If Ryder puts it on Canelo from the first bell, he has an excellent chance of wearing him out by the third round, then battering him like an old drum while he’s exhausted and pinned helplessly against the ropes like a pinata for the final nine rounds of the contest.
Canelo’s career is over with a loss to Ryder
“A loss here, and his career is pretty much over, as wild as that may seem,” said Chris Algieri to ProBox TV about what’s at stake for undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on his title defense against John Ryder on May 6th.
πππ ππππ πππ π@Canelo vs @_John_Ryder_
All the Super Middleweight gold β¨#CaneloRyder π²π½ pic.twitter.com/lNiR7Trktr
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) April 26, 2023
“We spoke so much about last year not being a good year [for Canelo], losing to Bivol, and having a trilogy with Gennadiy Golovkin, which kind of walked that beautiful trilogy out like a sheep. Also getting a broken hand.
“Then coming back and losing to a guy like John Ryder. The upside of your career is over at that point. Absolutely,” said Algieri when asked if this is a ‘must-win fight for Canelo.’ “This is going to set up the next couple of big fights, whether it’s [David] Benavidez in September or [Dmitry]Bivol or if those fights are down the line.
“I still think there’s a bunch of big fights left in the career of Canelo Alvarez, but we can’t talk about any of those if we can’t get past John Ryder,” said Algieri.
Ryder must make it a rough fight
“Canelo wins the fight [against Ryder]. Between being where he’s at in terms of his career, being where the fight is being fought in his backyard, and also what he has in front of him. John Ryder is a very capable guy,” Algieri said.
“We’ve been speaking his high praises the whole time, but I think he makes it a very ugly fight. I don’t think this is going to be a fight where everyone is going, ‘Oh man, Canelo is back. That was fantastic.’ I think it’s going to leave us like, ‘Ooh, that was rough,’ because John Ryder is a rough guy.
“I think for him to be successful at all in this fight, he’s [Ryder] got to make it a rough fight, and I think he’s good enough to do that and savvy enough. I still got Canelo coming out with a decision win,” said Algieri.
“I’m interested here to see where Ryder’s head is going to be at because of the pressure situation with the Canelo crowd and all this other stuff because, as Chris said, ‘He’s rough,’ Ryder is rough, but he’s also crafty, he knows how to be crafty with the roughhouse tactics,” said Paulie Malignaggi.
“I think to do that in that atmosphere, you have to have a certain amount of confidence, and you have to be cool under pressure because otherwise, you’re not going to be as confident in order to enter that danger zone and get rough, you have to have the confidence in order to go for it in the moment within the scope of the pressure situation and the crowd and everything else.
“If he can overcome that [he can win]. If the bell rings and this guy is frozen and posing there, I don’t like it, but he’s [Ryder] got to get in there. If he can get in there, I think he makes a good fight of it,” Malignaggi said.
Will there be a robbery?
“Canelo can get a decision anyway. Even if Ryder wins, what are you going to give Ryder a decision? No shot, but I think Canelo will win the fight,” said Malignaggi.
“That’s a good point, Paulie because when he [Canelo] fought Danny Jacobs, he made it that kind of fight because he was confident and he was in his backyard, and he still barely beat Danny,” said Algieri about Canelo.
“So a lot of people argued that he didn’t. So you got that, and it’s a great point. In order to do that in your hometown, in your home country on your home turf rather than Canelo’s home turf is a big difference,” said Algieri.
“You got to go engage,” said Malignaggi.
