Canelo Alvarez appears to be on a crash course to face John Ryder for his first fight in 2023 in May on the Cinco de Mayo holiday.
It would look better for Canelo if he chose a better opponent than Ryder to fight in May because that match is unappealing to the American boxing fans, who see John as another example of the Mexican star cherry-picking soft opposition from Europe like he’d consistently done from 2018 to 2021.
In 2022, Canelo lost to Dmitry Bivol and finished the year strong with a victory over Gennadiy Golovkin in their trilogy fight.
The win for Canelo ended his three-fight rivalry with Golovkin, but it’s too bad that Saul waited until GGG was 40 years old to finally take this fight.
Canelo waited four years from the last time he fought Golovkin in 2018 before facing him again. Some fans think Canelo intentionally did that to age GGG.
That’s a fight that undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) has talked about fighting since last year, and it’s clear that he and his promoter Eddie Hearn like that match-up a lot.
Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs) has put himself in a position to fight Canelo by defeating Daniel Jacobs and Zach Parker.
The win over Jacobs, a 12 round split decision last February in England, was a questionable one for Ryan, but nevertheless, he got the win, and that’s all that matters.
If Canelo gets past the 34-year-old Ryder, which would seem likely, his second fight of 2023 in September could be a rematch with WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol.
Canelo lost to Bivol by a narrow 12 round unanimous decision last May in Las Vegas, and he says he wants to avenge the defeat. With that said, Bivol’s recent comments about not caring about fighting Canelo again put the rematch in doubt.
Unless Canelo really wants the rematch, he could use Bivol’s disinterest as a rationale/excuse to move on toward a safer target.
If Canelo doesn’t face Bivol, boxing fans will expect him to fight the winner of the Caleb Plant vs. David Benavidez fight or David Morrell.
It’ll look bad on Canelo’s part if he swerves those fighters and faces another Ryder-type of opponent because it would be obvious that he wants nothing to do with anyone good enough to beat him in 2023.
“I would love to see Canelo Alvarez fight David Benavidez in May or September in 2023 or 2024; I don’t care. It’s a Mexican holiday, it’s going to be between two Mexican fighters,” said Sergio Mora to the DAZN Boxing Show about what he personally would like to see from Canelo Alvarez this year.
“It makes all the sense in the world. Speed, explosiveness, power. That fight ends in a knockout. Give me Benavidez – Canelo,” said Mora.