By Dan Ambrose: John Ryder understands that he will have to use educated pressure against Canelo Alvarez for him to have a shot at beating the superstar on May 6th in their fight at the Akron Stadium in Guadalajara, Mexico.
We’ve seen what happens to fighters like Gennadiy Golovkin when he let Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) control the fight without pressure in their recent trilogy fight last September.
What Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs) has going for him is he’s a natural pressure fighter, so it’s not like he’s going to need to use game plan that is alien to his way of fighting.
In Canelo’s last two fights, he’s had major stamina issues, and it’s likely that problem will still be present against Ryder on May 6th.
Yeah, we heard Canelo blame his poor performances against Dmitry Bivol and Golovkin on his left wrist injury, but the much bigger problem that he had in those fight was related to his conditioning.
John turns off fan-boy mode for Canelo
“I’ve had to turn off the fan-boy mode and turn on full-out assault mode,” said John Ryder to iFL TV about how he’s changed his mindset for his fight against Canelo Alvarez on May 6th.
“I’ve done things the hard way. I could have easily had it after the [Callum] Smith fight. I could have really had my shot against Canelo, but things didn’t work out that way that night.
“So, I went back to the drawing board and found a route. I won the WBO interim against Zach Parker, and I’m finally there, getting a shot that I truly deserve.
“You’ve got to mix it up with him. He’s a great counterpunch, but you do have to be the aggressor and take it to him.
“The respect is there. I was lucky enough to fight on his undercard and lucky enough to be ringside for his fights,” Ryder said of Canelo. “It’s strictly business now. It’s not hard for me to study tapes of him.
Ryder picking up Canelo’s flaws
“As long as you can do that sensibly and not get too carried away and too eager, then you should be fine.
“Of course, I keep seeing it, but there’s a lot of hard work to be done yet beforehand,” said Ryder when asked if he could see himself holding Canelo’s four super middleweight titles after beating him on May 6th.
“Obviously, a good time here before we head to stateside to finish off. We’ve had a good camp so far. It’s all about the fine details now. I can’t wait. We’ll head out on the 20th [of April] and get acclimatized a bit
“I’ve watched most of his fights already. Now it’s about going through and picking out the bones of what he does wrong and pick up the mistakes,” said Ryder.
Hearn gives Ryder a shot against Canelo
“People talk about the selection of John Ryder. It wasn’t a selection. It was a mandatory. He’s the interim [WBO super middleweight] world champion,” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN Boxing.
“He beat Danny Jacobs, and he beat Zach Parker to become mandatory. John gets a chance of a lifetime. Good timing for John. Maybe a couple of years ago, in his fight against Callum Smith, maybe he wasn’t ready for a fight like this.
“This is well beyond the levels he’s boxed at before. It’s a dream shot, and I guarantee you that John Ryder will give you everything in Guadalajara. Canelo coming off surgery, I don’t know, am I clutching straws here?” said Hearn.
“Maybe, but you got to,” said Ade Oladipo about Hearn going overboard, trying to sell an overmatched Ryder as having a decent shot of upsetting heavy favorite Canelo on May 6th.
“John Ryder will be taking every little bit of that into the fight,” said Hearn.
