Canelo Alvarez Pummels A Game, But Overmatched John Ryder

ZAPOPAN, MEXICO - MAY 06: Canelo Alvarez of Mexico punches John Ryder of Great Britain during the ... [+] fight for the Super Middleweight Championship at Akron Stadium on May 06, 2023 in Zapopan, Mexico. (Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images)

Canelo Alvarez (59-2-2) successfully defended his WBO, IBF, WBA and WBC super middleweight titles and bounced back from the second loss of his illustrious boxing career on Saturday night with a unanimous-decision win over John Ryder (32-6).

The location of the fight made Canelo’s win over Ryder even sweeter as the 32-year-old handled business in front of a packed crowd at Estadio Akron, Zapopan in his hometown of Jalisco, Mexico.

In what appeared to be one of the smallest rings I can remember seeing in a championship fight in some time, Canelo outgunned the game, but overmatched Ryder en route to the easy decision victory (118-109, 118-109, and 120-107).

Canelo walked Ryder down most of the fight landing the harder and more impacting shots to the challenger, dropping him in the fifth round following a wicked 1-2 combination.

For a moment, it looked as if Ryder may elect to stay on his right knee as he worked his way back to his feet. Ryder rose to his feet at the count of eight and remained competitive, though not dangerous for the remainder of the fight.

According to a summary supplied by Compubox:

“With the exception of power punches thrown, Canelo bested Ryder in every statistical category tracked by CompuBox. Canelo landed 46% of his power punches and 39% of his total punches while landing twice as many punches as Ryder. Ryder fought gamely, spending the majority of the fight bleeding from his nose and mouth, and getting off of the canvas in the fifth round. His toughness did not translate into success, as he was only able to land 18% of his total punches, 6% of his jabs, and 27% of his power punches. Ryder only reached ten punches landed in one round, while Canelo landed at least ten punches in eleven of twelve rounds.”

To Ryder’s credit, he was able to hit Canelo with a number of sneaky left uppercuts over the course of the bout. Unfortunately for the challenger, his lack of punching power made the shots inconsequential as they didn’t score enough to influence the judges, and weren’t hard enough to slow Canelo down.

By the end of the fight, Ryder was bloodied and seemingly happy with finishing the bout on his feet, considering the damage he took over the course of the 12-round bout.

There are a number of fights Canelo could take for his next bout. He called out the undefeated Dmitry Bivol, the WBA light heavyweight champion who won a clear unanimous decision over Canelo in May 2022.

Canelo would prefer to face Bivol on Mexican Independence Day weekend on September 16, but there is also a push for him to fight top 168-pound contenders David Benavidez or David Morrell.

In nay case, the details will likely need to come together over the next couple of months. As for Ryder, he has nothing to hang his head about after the loss. He didn’t quit and fought through some adversity as well as a talent gap.

Canelo was simply the better fighter, which has been the case in 59 of his 63 professional fights.

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