By Barry Holbrook: John Ryder (32-6, 18 KOs) revealed after his defeat against four-belt super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) that he’d suffered a broken nose early in the contest and he couldn’t breathe in the fight on Saturday night in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Ryder says Canelo fought him with an uppercut while he was leaning forward in the third round. He states that he didn’t see the punch coming because he was focused on the initial jab and wasn’t prepared for the backhand that caught him perfectly.
Ryder’s nose gave him so many problems that he couldn’t sit in between rounds because he couldn’t breathe, so he was forced to stand.
He lost the fight to Canelo by a 12 round unanimous decision by scores of 120-107, 118-109, and 118-109.
“After all these years of boxing, it’s the first time I broke my nose,” said John Ryder to Matchroom Boxing following his loss to Canelo Alvarez on Saturday night.
“It was a new experience. Going back to my corner, a towel in my face, just couldn’t breathe. There was blood going back down my throat. After that, it was just hard to sit down and breathe. So I was standing up throughout the rounds.
“I felt I won the first two rounds quite well. I was boxing sensibly. I just got careless in the last second, leaned forward, and got caught by an uppercut.
“I saw the jab, but I just didn’t see the backhand coming,” said Ryder about how he suffered his broken nose. “It was the first time I was down as well. It was a new experience gained.
“I came here to Mexico. It was great to be a part of this event. It’s not the end for sure. It’s funny when I got knocked down. I thought, ‘All these Nigel Benn fights I’ve seen over the years.’ I thought, ‘How would Nigel Benn come back?’ He would come back and have a tear up.
“I thought, ‘You’re not going to go out like that. You’re going to come back. Do what Nigel Benn does.’ Obviously, I didn’t because I would have gotten him out of there.
“I had some good exchanges after that, but obviously, it was hard to get the breathing. I just felt like I was throwing punches out of breath a lot of the time.
“I always thought he was good. He’s good, he sets traps,” said Ryder about Canelo. “Even when you think you’re having success, which I was in the first couple of rounds, you could see that he was downloading information to stick it on in the later rounds and set the traps,” said Ryder.
