Canelo Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs) is finalizing a fight against Eddie Hearn-promoted John Ryder for May 6th in what is being planned to be staged in Jalisco, Mexico, at the Akron Stadium.
The superstar Canelo will defend his undisputed championship against the 34-year-old Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs), who holds the interim WBO 168-lb title. Ryder put himself in a position to fight Canelo by defeating Zach Parker last November.
It’ll be Canelo’s first fight in his home country since he blasted out Kermit Cintron in five rounds in November 2011 in Mexico City at the Plaza de Toros.
It’s a gesture for the 32-year-old Canelo to let his fans in his home country watch him fight life, but it’ll hurt him in his pocketbook because he could make more money fighting in the U.S.
Obviously, Canelo is incredibly well off, so it won’t matter if he loses out on many millions by electing to fight in Mexico rather than the U.S. or the UK.
Will Canelo vs. Ryder be PPV?
With Canelo starting to show signs of slippage in his last two fights, it’s unclear how much longer he’s going to fight. He looked poor in his trilogy match against 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin last September, and he was totally dominated before that in a one-sided loss to Dmitry Bivol last May.
In both fights, Canelo gassed out after five rounds, and was running on fumes in the second half of the contests. The only reason he didn’t lose both is that Golovkin’s decision not to start fighting hard until the midway point.
Ryder is a fighter that Canelo’s promoter Hearn has had his eyes set on since after his last fight against Gennadiy Golovkin last September.
By using Ryder as Canelo’s opponent, it gives the Mexican star a safe tune-up to test out his surgically repaired left wrist, and it helps build his fan base in the UK. Additionally, it keeps Ryder happy, as he’s one of Hearn’s fighters in his Matchroom Boxing stable.
Hearn hasn’t said whether fans will need to dig deep to purchase the Canelo-Ryder fight on DAZN PPV on May 6th, but given that virtually all of Canelo’s fights are behind a firewall on pay-per-view, it would be wise for boxing fans to expect that it won’t be part of the monthly or yearly subscription.
Americans won’t be overjoyed at having to pay to see Canelo fight Ryder, a guy with five losses and not considered in the same league as the elite at 168, because they’ve been pushing for the Mexican star to fight David Benavidez for many, many years.
They’ve seen their share of mismatches from Alvarez since 2018, starting with Rocky Fielding, including Billy Joe Saunders, Avni Yildrim, Daniel Jacobs, and Sergey Kovalev. Canelo briefly ended the mismatches when he took on Bivol last May.
After losing that fight to Bivol, Canelo chose to finally face Golovkin after letting him sit and wait for four years after their previous fight in 2018.
Canelo had said that he would face Bivol in an immediate rematch, but instead, he went for the easy mark by facing Golovkin, who was just a shadow of the fighter he’d been in their first two fights in 2017 & 2018.
Seeing Canelo take another gimme from the UK won’t make U.S. fans happy. They don’t care that Canelo is coming off wrist surgery.
“Canelo Alvarez and John Ryder are in the process of finalizing a deal May 6,” per ESPN.
“The bout is expected to land in Jalisco, Mexico, which would deliver a long-awaited homecoming fight for boxing’s top star.”
The frontrunner for the fight Canelo-Ryer fighter is the 46-000-seat Akron Stadium, according to writer Salvador Rodriguez of ESPN Knockout.