Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez floored John Ryder but had to settle for a hard-fought unanimous decision victory over the brave British challenger in Mexico.
The Mexican star dropped Ryder in the fifth round, although he could not deliver a knockout in his homecoming fight, and received the win on points with scores of 118-109, 118-109 and 120-107.
Canelo stayed on course for a rematch against Dmitry Bivol, who defeated him on points in their WBA light-heavyweight title fight last May.
More than 50,000 fans watched as Canelo remained the undisputed super middleweight champion Saturday night, in his first fight in Mexico since 2011.
Alvarez broke Ryder’s nose, cruising to the victory in the end to improve to 59-2-2
“I hit him too much in the head and he did not go down,” Canelo said at ringside after the fight. “I’ve always said it, when they fight me, they give their 100 per cent, and it gets complicated because they usually give me the fight of their lives.”
Ryder, who is 32-6, said suffering the damage to his nose in the second round played a major role in having his four-bout winning streak stopped.
“He’s probably past his best, he could not get me out there, he wanted to stop me and could not do it,” Ryder said at a press conference. “It could have been a little different without the problem to my nose, it took me a few rounds to get adjusted.”
Saturday’s bout was Canelo’s first fight since he had surgery on his left wrist last March. Before the fight, he said the injury slowed him down in his previous four fights, including his loss to light heavyweight champion,Bivol, a year ago.
After getting a hard-fought victory over Ryder, Canelo has his eyes set on a rematch against the Russian in September.
“That’s what we are aiming for, but we will see”, added Canelo. – SkySports
