John Ryder: ‘Canelo in Mexico? If you think that’s big, wait for the rematch’

The British boxer will be a huge underdog on the champion’s home turf but he is promising the crowd a fight to remember

John Ryder’s boyhood dream was to be a firefighter and on Saturday night he may need to draw on that hazy past to fight the blazing inferno that could engulf him when he steps into the ring against Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez in Guadalajara. Canelo, the flame-haired Mexican boxing legend, remains the most popular fighter in the world and this defence of his undisputed world super-middleweight title is his first bout in his home country since November 2011.

Mexico has been in a fever all week, especially in the teeming city of Guadalajara, 20 miles from where the boxer grew up in Juanacatlán. Ryder, the aspiring fire-fighter, grew up on Upper Street in Islington, which will seem a very long way away in the final hours before he faces the might and fury of Canelo in front of a fiery crowd of 48,000 at the Estadio Akron.

Ryder is one of the most amiable boxers in the hard-bitten fight business and so he replies honestly when I ask if he suffers from nerves. “I’m not uncontrollable but I do,” he says. “The nerves do set in and I’m better when I’m around people. It’s not good for me to be left alone because I’ll sit on it too much.

“Even before the Zach Parker fight [his last bout six months ago when he defeated his previously unbeaten British rival in London] I was trying to get an afternoon nap and it was difficult. I woke myself up with an unbelievable rush of energy and the heart rate pumping.” He laughs quietly. “It lets you know that you’re alive.”

Ryder has boxed professionally for 12-and-a-half years and had 37 bouts, so he has developed ways to stop his boxing dreams turning into nightmares. “It’s part of my routine at night to do a bit of visualisation and think about the fight and put myself in that arena, put myself in that ring and get comfortable being there,” he says.

“I’ve been lucky enough to go to the arena in Guadalajara. I’ve seen the venue, seen the changing rooms, seen the pitch. I’m taking myself there every night so there’s going to be no shock.”

His natural enthusiasm soon spills over and he says: “I’m actually buzzing. Biggest night of my career so far. I’ve had big fights in the past but nothing compares to this.” Ryder pauses and then, with a cheeky cackle, he adds: “But, if you think this is big, wait until the rematch.”

His apparent confidence is not shared by the bookmakers, who make Canelo a prohibitive favourite, or almost anyone else in boxing. Last May, the Mexican topped most pound-for-pound lists as the world’s best fighter as he moved up a division to challenge Dmitry Bivol, the outstanding and unbeaten WBA world light-heavyweight champion. Canelo, who was 31 then, turned pro at the age of 15. Until he fought Bivol, Canelo had lost one of his 61 fights and that had been back in 2013 against the immaculate Floyd Mayweather.

But Canelo suffered his second defeat when he was outboxed and outfought by Bivol. Some of his majestic lustre was lost and even though he won his next fight against his old rival Gennadiy Golovkin last September Canelo had to take time away from the ring to undergo wrist surgery.

Ryder knows the great Mexican is determined to atone for the most disappointing year of his career. But is there a chance Canelo is on the wrong side of the boxing hill? “Potentially,” Ryder says, “but I don’t want to put all my eggs in that basket.

“I’ve trained for the best Canelo, and I want him to be at his best, but it’s hard to say [if his finest days are behind him]. That loss to Bivol obviously took a lot out of him and he had that great year in 2021 when he unified the super-middleweight division [after fighting four times in 11 months].

“That took a lot out of him too, with back-to-back camps, and the fight with Golovkin was not a vintage performance. He got the job done, but since then he’s had surgery. So we need to wait and see what he’s got left.”

Ryder’s record, with five losses in his 37-bout career, does not compare with Canelo’s brilliant résumé. It is also worrying that three of the men who beat Ryder were subsequently dismantled by Canelo. “When you look at the fights it’s not so clearcut,” Ryder says. “I actually think I beat Callum Smith [when all three judges awarded the Liverpool fighter the decision in 2019].

“If anything I showed Canelo the blueprint of how to beat Callum Smith a year later. I boxed Rocky Fielding [in 2017] and I felt I was harshly judged again in Liverpool. It was a split-decision and I felt I could have won it.

“The Billy Joe Saunders fight [in 2013] showed my inexperience at the time. It was my first 12-rounder and I took a lot from the fight. I learned a lot of lessons and Billy Joe didn’t. But he went into the Canelo fight [eight years later] and put on a fantastic performance. I thought he was well in the fight and just unfortunate with that injury.”

Saunders suffered a shattered orbital bone when Canelo stopped him in the eighth round in May 2021 and the trash-talking Briton, who had won all 30 of his previous fights, has never boxed again. This is the kind of danger Ryder faces and he concedes that Canelo has so many strengths and few weaknesses.

“His punch variation is very good and his explosive hand speed is great. The combination punching is phenomenal. You’ve got to push him backwards and put him on those ropes. You saw what Bivol did. He showed that under real pressure Canelo goes square on with the hands high and he’s not really in a position to throw back.

“I also feel that, for this fight, the pressure’s all on Canelo. He’s coming off a difficult last year, followed by surgery and he’s got the pressure of being home for the first time in 11-and-a-half years.”

It is still a formidable task for Ryder to swap punches with a ferocious and fired-up Canelo. How does his partner, Nancy, deal with her anxieties before such a perilous fight? “She said that this is, funnily enough, the calmest she’s been in the buildup to a fight for some reason. But she’s my biggest fan. Nancy is the noisiest person in the arena come fight night and she can always be heard.”

Ryder insists that, at ringside on Saturday night, Nancy’s voice will ring out above the Mexican cacophony. “We only need one Nancy. She’ll make herself heard above 48,000 Mexicans.”

How long have he and Nancy been a couple? “Sixteen years now. She’s been throughout my whole pro career and seen a lot of the amateur stuff. She’s witnessed it all. She’s not one of them that watches through her fingers. She’s watching clearly and throwing every shot with me.

“She’s really involved and has a lot of confidence in me, even if she knows full well who Canelo is in the ring. We’ve also got an eight-year-old daughter, Heidi, who’s fully into YouTube now and she understands who Canelo is and what I’m going up against. She’s excited as well. Only my son, Brody, who is three, is a bit out of the loop.

“They’re together in Cancún during fight week and then Nancy will fly over to Guadalajara for the evening and leave the kids with her mum for the night. She’ll come and see the fight, take it in, make some noise and then we’ll head back to Cancún the next day for a bit of downtime.”

Will Ryder have many other supporters? “I’ve got about 50 people with me. That’s a fairly good number. There’ll be lots of Arsenal fans, a few Geordies, Sunderland and Newcastle fans. A few Welsh lads who support Wrexham. There are a lot of loud people, so hopefully we will get a small section rocking.”

Does Ryder allow himself to think of a shock victory and winning, as he says, “all the marbles” in the form of the four major world title belts held by Canelo? “I do think about it, but I try to put it to the side. If you start thinking about that too much then you’ve already got one eye out of the game. But there is a rematch clause on his part. So if I beat him there’ll be a rematch in September. As an Arsenal fan it would be lovely to have it at the Emirates but I’m sure Vegas would make sense. Twenty-four rounds with Canelo this year would not be too bad.”

The 34-year-old has felt the pain of the past few weeks as his beloved Gunners have lost ground in their quest to win the Premier League for the first time since 2004. Football also matters at the Estadio Akron for it is normally the home of Club Deportivo Guadalajara – or Chivas [Goats] as the city’s club are nicknamed.

Ryder understands that we all think he has even less chance than Arsenal have of holding off the Manchester City juggernaut, but his good cheer remains intact. “I really want to go out and do a job on Canelo and come back with all those belts and Arsenal do their job and win the league. I want to try to nick their glory and jump on an open top bus with them and do a double celebration on Upper Street. That’s the aim.”

It seems cruel to say how unlikely both outcomes appear and so, instead, I ask Ryder why he is called The Gorilla. He smiles. “It comes from Robert McCracken [the GB Olympic team coach who has also trained Anthony Joshua for years] many moons ago. I was sparring with a few of his pros, like Lee Meager and Dave Walker. I’m not going to do the [Birmingham] accent because I’ll butcher it. But he said: ‘You’re like a baby gorilla.’ It slowly went from Baby Gorilla to Gorilla and it’s just stuck.”

The aspiring firefighter turned Gorilla is so likable that even the vociferous Mexican fans appreciated him when he visited Guadalajara in March to announce the fight. “It was very friendly and lighthearted and the Mexican media and the Mexican people were very welcoming and warm,” Ryder says.

“I do expect that to change as the fight nears and I’m sure it will be a lot more hostile and not so nice. But the thing with Mexican fans is that as long as you give them what they want to see, and make a real fight of it, they’ll be pretty satisfied. I will make sure they get that.”

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