Eddie Hearn thinks John Ryder is facing Canelo Alvarez at positively the ideal time for him to pull off an upset on May 6th, with the fight taking place after the Mexican superstar’s left wrist surgery and two consecutive dismal performances in 2022.
If there was a time for Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs) to get Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs), this would be it because the 32-year-old was nowhere near the level he’d been a year earlier when he captured the undisputed super middleweight championship in 2021.
Ryder will be up against it as the visiting fighter facing the hometown kid Canelo on May 6th in front of 50,000 pro-Canelo fans at the Akron Stadium in Guadalajara, Mexico.
If Ryder is the type to be cowed by the noise from hostile crowds, he could break mentally when he goes up against the four-belt 168-lb champion Canelo on the night.
Canelo blames his loss to Dmitry Bivol and his similar lackluster performance against 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin last year on his left wrist injury that he fought those fights with.
However, if you compare Canelo’s past performances to those, not much has changed. He was loading up on single shots his entire career, which is what he did against Bivol and Golovkin.
Additionally, you can’t blame Canelo’s wrist problem on him gassing out in both of those fights because that was a cardio problem, and it suggests that he either failed to train hard enough or this is a part of the ongoing problem that he’s had his entire career, but has worsened as he’s gotten older.
“He deserves it; he’s [Jhn Ryder] the mandatory. Canelo has to fight him if he wants to keep his belts, and John has earned it. He beat Danny Jacobs, and he beat Zach Parker, and he’ll give him everything. It is a good time to fight Saul [Alvarez] because he is coming in off the surgery,” said Eddie Hearn to Secondsout about John Ryder catching the Mexican star Canelo Alvarez at the perfect time with him coming off left wrist surgery.
“You don’t know if he is coming towards the back end of his career; he says not. He [Ryder] is also fighting in Guadalajara, in front of 50,000 people, so he is right up against it, but as I said, John will give it everything,” said Hearn.
“He’s coming off surgery, and he’s the pound-for-pound one of the best fighters in the world. We know it’s a very tough fight. John has paid his dues, and he’ll put his heart into that fight on May 6th.
