By Sean Jones: Eddie Hearn says Canelo Alvarez’s fight with John Ryder on May 6th will tell us a lot about where he’s at with his career.
Canelo is coming off the worst year of his career with his loss to Dmitry Bivol and his narrow win over 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin. In both fights, Canelo gassed out early and looked like an old, tired & empty shell of the fighter he’d been from 2015 to 2017.
Hearn says if Canelo (58-2-1, 39 KOs) struggles against Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs), he will recommend that he not fight the rematch with Dmitry Bivol in September. Fighting Bivol again would be pointless for Canelo if he labored to defeat Ryder.
Unfortunately for Canelo, he’s probably going to have a lot of problems trying to beat Ryder because this guy is a pressure fighter, who throws a lot of punches and has an excellent chin.
It’s guaranteed that Ryder will outwork Canelo, and he’s going to land a lot of shots, making it difficult for the judges to score the fight. With the fight taking place in Mexico, Canelo will be given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to scoring, but he’s still going to look bad if he can’t score a knockout of Ryder.
“May 6 will tell us a lot about Canelo,” Eddie Hearn told The DAZN Boxing Show. “Although Ryder is a massive underdog, he will give it [his all].
“I know him very well. He will give it everything. If Saul’s not on it, even if he wins, he may not do it convincingly against John Ryder.
“If he doesn’t do that, then you have to start looking at potential regression.”
“If he goes out and looks great against John Ryder, then all of a sudden, he goes into the Bivol fight with confidence,” said Hearn.
It won’t matter if Hearn attempts to dissuade Canelo from taking the rematch with Bivol because he’s made up his mind that he wants to face him again. Canelo would rather fight Bivol again than battle the young killers David Benavidez or David Morrell Jr.
“The pressure is on Canelo. It’s his first fight back in Guadalajara in twelve years. The last year was injury and surgery and whatnot. The pressure is on him,” said Ryder to Joe. “On May 6th, following that game plan to a tee and getting my hand raised.
