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What a career Ryan Rhodes has had. It is 16 years since he was sat on his backside in the first round of his professional debut, getting up to fix his carefully combed hair and his ego, then knocking Lee Crocker over in the second round at the National Ice Rink in Cardiff.
There's not much hair left, but the ego is fine. That self-belief, which has been tested many times, will sustain the 34-year-old Yorkshireman through the Mexican jeers on his way to the ring in Guadalajara on 18 June when he challenges their new red-haired hero, the WBC light-middleweight champion, Saúl Alvarez, in a fight that will be described between now and then as one too many for the Sheffield man.
What happens, though, is up to him. It will not be dull. The odds are Alvarez will do to Rhodes what he did to Matthew Hatton when he won the vacant title in Los Angeles last month. But Rhodes doesn't care much for odds. He has always been a gambler.
I remember when he was the undercard of Chris Eubank's fight with Joe Calzaghe in Newcastle in 1997. Rhodes bet his mates, including Naseem Hamed, that he could jump off the Tyne Bridge. He'd already won a bet leaping blind over a cliff, and survived; this time, it was pointed out to him he might land on a passing boat. He thought better of it.
Rhodes knew no fear, then. He was unbeaten. His opponent that night was Yuri Epifantsev. The Russian had just retired the fine Scot Gary Jacobs and brought his new IBF inter-continental middleweight belt to Newcastle. He left without it, lasting two rounds in front of Rhodes's whirring fists. Even Naz was gobsmacked.
In Rhodes's next fight, the excellent Canadian Otis Grant got the better of Rhodes over 12 close rounds in Sheffield in what turned out to be a premature challenge for a world title. Rhodes was 21.
He was still golden, just a little tarnished. But, when Hackney's Jason Matthews knocked him out in two rounds two years later for an interim WBO title, boxing sages started that creeping whisper: he was chinny.
There seemed some truth to it. He looked spent. He won a few then was stopped again in 2002, in the third round by Wigan's Lee Blundell for another minor bauble.
Rhodes, though, would not go away. He changed camps, fell out with his best friend Naz and left his trainer, Brendan Ingle, lost some more hair – but he didn't quit. He even got another world title shot, but the Welshman Gary Lockett was too young, too strong for him, winning over 12 rounds. That was five years ago. Since then, Rhodes has matured, inside the ring as well as outside.
He's won 10 times, stopped his friend Jamie Moore in the fight of 2009, forcing his retirement from the ring, picked up the European light-middleweight title and, almost unnoticed by all except those who kept the faith, risen to No 4 in the WBC rankings at 11st.
There was, after all, substance to go with the flash moves and the loud gestures. And now he gets what, surely, will be one last grab at the prize. Some will look on it as a pension fight – and it is to be hoped he gets paid well. But Rhodes won't see it that way. He never has. He has always reckoned he could beat anyone who stepped into a ring with him.
This is a more serious challenge than Hatton's. Ricky's bigger little brother had no pedigree at light-middle (nor, actually, did Alvarez, but he was clearly the bigger man). Rhodes, who started at 162lb against Crocker 16 years ago, still hits the scales around that weight, testimony to his fitness and, whatever anyone thought, his dedication and belief in his gifts.
"We have chosen Ryan Rhodes because he is the highest available contender," the WBC president José Sulaimán said this week. "We looked at someone higher than him, but we don't believe [the Mexican, Alfredo] Angulo is available."
Rhodes will start at long odds to upset Alvarez, who is the next big drawcard of Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy stable.
It won't bother him one bit.
There's not much hair left, but the ego is fine. That self-belief, which has been tested many times, will sustain the 34-year-old Yorkshireman through the Mexican jeers on his way to the ring in Guadalajara on 18 June when he challenges their new red-haired hero, the WBC light-middleweight champion, Saúl Alvarez, in a fight that will be described between now and then as one too many for the Sheffield man.
What happens, though, is up to him. It will not be dull. The odds are Alvarez will do to Rhodes what he did to Matthew Hatton when he won the vacant title in Los Angeles last month. But Rhodes doesn't care much for odds. He has always been a gambler.
I remember when he was the undercard of Chris Eubank's fight with Joe Calzaghe in Newcastle in 1997. Rhodes bet his mates, including Naseem Hamed, that he could jump off the Tyne Bridge. He'd already won a bet leaping blind over a cliff, and survived; this time, it was pointed out to him he might land on a passing boat. He thought better of it.
Rhodes knew no fear, then. He was unbeaten. His opponent that night was Yuri Epifantsev. The Russian had just retired the fine Scot Gary Jacobs and brought his new IBF inter-continental middleweight belt to Newcastle. He left without it, lasting two rounds in front of Rhodes's whirring fists. Even Naz was gobsmacked.
In Rhodes's next fight, the excellent Canadian Otis Grant got the better of Rhodes over 12 close rounds in Sheffield in what turned out to be a premature challenge for a world title. Rhodes was 21.
He was still golden, just a little tarnished. But, when Hackney's Jason Matthews knocked him out in two rounds two years later for an interim WBO title, boxing sages started that creeping whisper: he was chinny.
There seemed some truth to it. He looked spent. He won a few then was stopped again in 2002, in the third round by Wigan's Lee Blundell for another minor bauble.
Rhodes, though, would not go away. He changed camps, fell out with his best friend Naz and left his trainer, Brendan Ingle, lost some more hair – but he didn't quit. He even got another world title shot, but the Welshman Gary Lockett was too young, too strong for him, winning over 12 rounds. That was five years ago. Since then, Rhodes has matured, inside the ring as well as outside.
He's won 10 times, stopped his friend Jamie Moore in the fight of 2009, forcing his retirement from the ring, picked up the European light-middleweight title and, almost unnoticed by all except those who kept the faith, risen to No 4 in the WBC rankings at 11st.
There was, after all, substance to go with the flash moves and the loud gestures. And now he gets what, surely, will be one last grab at the prize. Some will look on it as a pension fight – and it is to be hoped he gets paid well. But Rhodes won't see it that way. He never has. He has always reckoned he could beat anyone who stepped into a ring with him.
This is a more serious challenge than Hatton's. Ricky's bigger little brother had no pedigree at light-middle (nor, actually, did Alvarez, but he was clearly the bigger man). Rhodes, who started at 162lb against Crocker 16 years ago, still hits the scales around that weight, testimony to his fitness and, whatever anyone thought, his dedication and belief in his gifts.
"We have chosen Ryan Rhodes because he is the highest available contender," the WBC president José Sulaimán said this week. "We looked at someone higher than him, but we don't believe [the Mexican, Alfredo] Angulo is available."
Rhodes will start at long odds to upset Alvarez, who is the next big drawcard of Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy stable.
It won't bother him one bit.
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