Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez was the heavy favourite going into Saturday night’s match-up with WBO mandatory challenger John Ryder and he won easily to remain undisputed at super middleweight. After the fight, the 32-year-old Mexican told the crowd that he now wants a rematch with the last man to defeat him, WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol.
Undisputed super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez wants a rematch with Dmitry Bivol after beating John Ryder on Saturday night.
Alvarez and Ryder fought in Guadalajara in Mexico, in Canelo’s first fight in his home country in more than a decade.
There was plenty of pressure on the champion as he faced down his WBO mandatory challenger as he was returning from hand surgery to address an injury that he claimed had been keeping him from his best for two or three years.
That period included last year’s defeat to Bivol in May as he challenged for the WBA light heavyweight championship, losing to the Russian fighter, and also the underwhelming performance in the trilogy rematch against Gennadiy Golovkin at 168lbs.
Despite the defeat for Canelo last May, he has been adamant that he wants to run it back in pursuit of his second belt at 175lbs.
“Same rules, same terms, same everything,” Alvarez said of a potential rematch against Bivol after beating Ryder.
Before any Bivol fight, Alvarez had to get past Ryder and landed a perfectly-timed uppercut at the end of the second round, breaking the Briton’s nose and sewing some panic in the fighter as he dealt with heavy bleeding.
In the fifth, Ryder was knocked down to the canvas after a one-two combination that saw the Englishman use almost the full referee’s count for recovery.
Ultimately, the judges believed Canelo to be the clear winner, scoring it 118-109, 118-109 and 120-107 to Alvarez.
“I’m happy with the fight. I won and I’m happy people had a great fight [to watch],” Alvarez told DAZN. “He’s a strong fighter. I knew that; I’m not surprised about it.”
Ryder said: “I’ve dared to do and I’ve come up short. The overriding thing is I’m gutted.”
Promoter Eddie Hearn said to the BBC: “John showed he was a world-class fighter but Canelo is one of the best ever. John deserves massive respect tonight.
“John came into the fight when it looked like the fight was over,” Hearn continued. “He stayed in the fight. The more John threw the more success he was having. What a gutsy performance.”
