John Ryder admires Jaime Munguia’s ambition.

That same type of motivation drove Ryder to accept challenging fights the veteran super middleweight needed to win to land his own shot at boxing’s cash cow, Canelo Alvarez. Ryder is sure, though, that Munguia’s team made a matchmaking mistake by selecting the British southpaw as the opponent Munguia must beat to remain a potential opponent for Alvarez’s next fight.

Representatives for Alvarez and Munguia have reportedly discussed a pay-per-view showdown between Guadalajara’s Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs) and Tijuana’s Munguia (42-0, 33 KOs) for May 4, the day before “Cinco de Mayo,” the Mexican holiday that commemorates their country’s victory over French forces on May 5, 1862.

“Munguia’s obviously coming to use me as a steppingstone,” Ryder told Secondsout.com during an interview released recently on its YouTube channel. “I’ve got other plans. I wanna make a statement and, listen, I wanna get my career back to the heights it needs to be, starting with Jaime Munguia. So, go in there … make a statement and hopefully get a rematch with Canelo.”

London’s Ryder (32-6, 18 KOs) will fight for the first time Saturday night when he meets Munguia since he lost to Alvarez in their 12-round fight for the Mexican icon’s IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles last May 6. The 35-year-old Ryder suffered a broken nose late in the second round, got up from a fifth-round knockdown and lost to the heavily favored Alvarez by large margins on all three scorecards – 120-107, 118-109 and 118-109 – at Akron Stadium in Zapopan, Mexico, just outside of Alvarez’s hometown.

“I think if you can take the positives from the Canelo fight,” Ryder said, “I’ve stayed in there, I’ve dug deep and I’ve learned a lot of what Canelo does. Munguia’s a completely different fighter. He’s very much a volume puncher, whereas Canelo is very compact, tight, doesn’t waste nothing. But Jaime Munguia will come at you and throw punches all day.”

Munguia, 27, will fight for the first time Saturday night with respected trainer Freddie Roach in his corner. Roach, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012, replaced former four-division champion Erik Morales as Munguia’s chief second late last summer.

Morales, a fellow Tijuana native, trained Munguia for seven fights over a four-year period.

In Morales’ last fight with Munguia, the former WBO junior middleweight champion’s body blow dropped Sergiy Derevyanchenko with 59 seconds remaining in the 12th round of an unforgettable slugfest that Munguia barely won on two scorecards (115-112, 114-113, 114-113). If Munguia hadn’t knocked Ukraine’s Derevyanchenko (14-5, 10 KOs) to the canvas during the final round, their fight would’ve resulted in a majority draw June 10 at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.

BoxingScene.com and numerous other outlets voted Munguia-Derevyanchenko as “Fight of the Year” for 2023.

Munguia-Ryder will headline DAZN’s four-fight stream Saturday night from Footprint Center in Phoenix (8 p.m. ET; 5 p.m. PT). DAZN’s coverage of preliminary Munguia-Ryder undercard fights is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. PT).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.