John Ryder has warned that one punch from Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in his fight with Terence Crawford could change everything.
Ryder was outpointed by Canelo in Guadalajara in 2023 in a bruising battle. Ryder was dropped and had his nose broken, but was in there throwing leather for the full 12 rounds.
Canelo is the undisputed super-middleweight champion, and Crawford is making the leap from 154lbs to 168, having had just one fight at 154.
And even though Crawford is the older and smaller man in the huge fight at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Saturday, Ryder sees the fight as hard to call.
“I feel it’s 50-50,” said the Englishman. “Terence Crawford's unbelievable. You’re looking at two generational greats there. Terence Crawford’s seen the blueprint of how to beat Canelo with [Dmitry] Bivol; if he adopts a style like that in and out quick feet – which he’s got – the switch-hitting, he can punch with both hands, he can make it hard work for Canelo.”
There has been a shift in momentum with many in the trade siding with the Nebraska pound-for-pounder, but Ryder thinks the Mexican’s size will prove too great.
“I do feel Canelo will walk him down, the sheer size of him, the strength will probably wear Terence Crawford down,” added the former contender.
“I think Canelo still has the power. He’s not got the speed he once had but he’s got the accuracy; he’s got the power. I think the speed with the power is where the knockouts come but I think he can make it hard work for anyone and he can if he’s not knocking you out, he’s going to punish you. I think Canelo’s very smart. I’ve seen it myself, first hand, you see it with so many other opponents. The first round, he’s just gonna have a look. He’s gonna throw out a few jabs and I was thinking, ‘Oh, I slipped that. I slipped that, and I got my own jab off, it’s not as hard as I thought it would be.’ But I think he lures you into a full sense of security. He’s getting all that data from you. He’s assessing how you react to his feints, to what he does, then he reacts to it accordingly. And you can see that I was so eager to get my foot on the right side on the outside of his so I could get my hooks off and not give him the catch-counter hook that he loves so much.”
But Ryder made one false move, found himself out of position and everything changed.
“I went to catch his hook, bring the uppercut through, and he broke my nose and changed it in the second round,” said Ryder, who struggled to breathe and had to box through a stream of blood the rest of the way.
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
