Canelo Alvarez vs. John Ryder undercard for Saturday

By Boxing News - 05/03/2023 - Comments

By Sam Volz: Canelo Alvarez vs. John Ryder undercard for this Saturday night isn’t the greatest, but the fans probably won’t mind too much. The event will be shown live on DAZN PPV.

Most just want to see the former four-division world champion Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) in action, defending his undisputed super middleweight championship against Ryder (32-5, 19 KOs) at the Estadio Akron in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Canelo will have the following 168-lb titles at stake for this contest: IBF, WBA, WBC & WBO.

The most notable fight on the undercard is WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez making a defense against Ronal Batista.

Martinez, a pure slugger with poor defensive skills, has an entertaining fighting style and brings drama to all his fights because you never know if he will lose or get beaten up.

The heavy-handed light welterweight contender Steve Spark (16-2, 14 KOs), fresh off his upset win over Montana Love, is fighting the powerful Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela (26-3-1, 16 KOs) in defense of his WBA Inter-Continental 140-lb title in a 10-round bout.

It would have been nice if the undercard had some fights that appealed to the U.S. and UK fans because there’s not much to see here that catches the eye.

Canelo vs. Ryder undercard

  • Julio Cesar Martinez vs. Ronal Batista
  • Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela vs. Steve Spark
  • Nathan Devon Rodriguez vs. Alexander Mejia
  • Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs. Ricards Bolotniks
    Bek Nurmaganbet vs. Argenis Espana
  • Lawrence King vs. Elio German Rafael
  • Johansen Alvarez Suarez vs. Johan Rodriguez Arreguin
  • Abilkhan Amankul vs. Jesus Moroyoqui Palomares
  • Carlos Emiliano Rojo vs. Fabian Trejo Rivera
  • Jesus Larios vs. Alejandro Curiel

Canelo could have attracted more interest from fans in purchasing this card on DAZN pay-per-view if he’d selected one from this murderers row of talented fighters:

David Benavidez
Caleb Plant
Dmitry Bivol
David Morrell
Artur Beterbiev
Edgar Berlanga
Jermall Charlo
Carlos Adames
Demetrius Andrade
Janibek Alimkhanuly
Ali Akhmedov
Jaime Munguia

Canelo is keeping the gravy train going

At this point in Canelo’s career, he appears to be focusing on keeping the money rolling in by taking winnable fights and staying away from the killers that could send him into retirement or, at the minimum, cause fans not to want to purchase his matches on PPV.

All of these fighters would have been tough outs for Canelo, and there’s a good chance he would lose to at least half of them if not more.

So, Canelo made the right decision by selecting the 34-year-old British fighter Ryder as his opponent for his homecoming to Guadalajara, Mexico.

Canelo hadn’t fought in Mexico since 2011, when he bludgeoned an overmatched Kermit Cintron in five easy rounds in a fight that was too one-sided to be described as entertaining.

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