Former middleweight and super middleweight contender John Ryder is enjoying his transition to the safe side of the ropes, but admits the changes can be difficult.

The hard and fearless southpaw is now helping his coach, Tony Sims, at the Matchroom Gym in Essex, overseeing the training of the likes of Ramla Ali, Maisey Rose, George Liddard, Jimmy Sains, and Conor Benn.

“It is very tough and I’m thankful that early on in my retirement Tony said, ‘Can you just go and run the gym for me for a day’ and I came in and Maisey Rose was here and Jimmy Sains. It was like walking through the door back home,” Ryder says of his latest chapter. “They took the piss out of me and we just got on from there. So I'll always be thankful to Tony. I don’t know if he needed to be anywhere or just said like, ‘I’ll let John run the gym today, let him do me a favor’ and the way them two just welcomed me back… it was just like starting again. It was a very quick transition. They made it easier for me, just being around old friends. I’ll always be thankful to them two especially for that.”

After Ryder lost to Munguia, stopped in nine rounds in Phoenix in January 2024, he hung his gloves up. He was not torn about his decision. Ryder was 32-7 (18 KOs) and he had endured plenty of hard fights.

“I think it’s easy to retire but I think it’s hard to stay retired,” says the 37-year-old. “I think the lure of now the Saudi shows and the big money and just one more roll of the dice… and you never know when that is one step too far… so I’m happily retired and I’m happy to do my bit of work in the gym, get home and see my kids and be with my missus. Life’s good. “Yeah, it’s really good.”

Ryder is able to drop his kids off at school, get to the gym, spend the day there and collect the kids on the way home. For him, his fighting sacrifices have been worth it. 

There are plenty who felt he should have been announced as the world’s leading super middleweight after his 12-rounder with Smith in Liverpool, but the contentious scorecards that handed him defeat in 2019 don’t rankle with him any longer.

“I feel like I’ve beaten the house,” he adds, using gambling parlance. “I feel like I struck gold. Listen, we could all say we wanted more and could have done more but there’s people that have been in boxing that are a lot better than I ever was and left with a lot less than I did, so I’m fortunate. I’m thankful for what I got out of boxing and the life boxing gave me. I traveled the world, met so many fantastic people, there’s so many countries I can go to in the world now and see old friends that I’ve sparred with and met through boxing. I could go to Mexico and speak to people that I’ve met up with, and America, Italy, Poland, it’s been fantastic.” 

Ryder is also in good health. 

An uncompromising left-hander, his stubbornness frustrated Canelo, against whom Ryder had fleeting success, catching the Mexican with sneaky uppercuts through the middle, a Ryder trademark.

That was a hard night for the Englishman in Guadalajara. He had his nose badly broken early and it spewed blood for the rest of the fight. It is surviving experiences like that which gives Ryder the instant respect from those he now coaches.

“As a trainer, I don’t want to tell them things and they can say that I didn’t do it. They go, ‘Well, listen to him because he’s been there. He’s done it himself.’ I don’t want to be telling them to run through walls and not to have not even done it myself. If you need to bite down and push through because you still got a shot in this game, then do it and listen, I’ve stood there toe-to-toe with the one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters out there, nose broken in the second, and pushed him to the 12th and final round. I know now I can call on that in the future with fighters I train and just say, ‘Look, you’ve got to dig deep now. You’ve got to pull through – and it’s going to hurt today but tomorrow is another day.’” 

The Canelo fight was undoubtedly tough, however. It drained Ryder, and perhaps more than he thought it had in its immediate aftermath.

“I think physically, at the time, I felt like I was going to be so much better for the experience. I think the experience at 25 would have been fantastic for me, the experience at 35 was not so good,” he admits. “It was tough on the body. We age for a reason, don’t we? And I’ve got a lot of miles on the clock and I think that that last hurrah with Canelo was just probably one step too far. A lot of people say to me, ‘Why did you get up after the fifth [when he was knocked down]’ and it was pride, something in me, the will to win and the pride to go on. You can forever be called a quitter in this sport and it forever tarnishes your reputation. Moving forward, as a trainer, there was never that bit of quit in me but there’s also that [knowledge] to save and just to fight another day, which might have been a sensible thing to do. But I stayed in there, took some stick, took some punishment and went on to fight another day – but was well past my best.”

Ryder said his biggest career achievement was just backing himself. He knows he could have walked away after the Smith controversy and remained bitter. It came at a bad time, with the coronavirus pandemic about to lock down the world; he was unable to capitalise on the momentum and then lost a year to inactivity.

Still, he worked to get himself back into contention, winning his next four – including a close call against Jacobs – to land Canelo.

“Listen, I do I miss them big nights,” he sighs. “That [Canelo] being in Mexico, it wasn’t scary like everyone said it would be. It was nice. The people were fantastic; probably one of the nicest places I’ve ever been. The people were so welcoming and made me feel so special.”

Now, he is tasked with bringing through fighters who want to follow his path.
Like Ryder, Liddard and Sains are starting out as middleweight prospects, and Ryder reckons they are better than where he was at a comparative point in his career.

“I think so, yeah,” Ryder explains. “I think they’re just better; they’re better all-around athletes… the times they get on the track… the times they’re performing. I think they’re just better for the knowledge that Tony’s got now – and myself. Because early doors at some points, Tony’s been experiencing this for the first time. Now he’s done this so many times before.”

And when Ryder’s fighters make their ringwalks, that adrenaline surge spreads through the former fighter once more. Cornering Ramla Ali in New York against Lila Furtado is a case in point.

“Just to walk the ring with her in Madison Square Garden was something, being head coach,” he smiles. “It’s great, it just still feels like the big nights did [as a fighter]. To feel that winning mentality, the spirit and just not to have to be making weight myself now. It’s nice. I just tell them what to do and how to do it – but don’t do it myself.”