John Ryder could retire from boxing with Canelo Alvarez defeat in title fight

13 April 2023 , 15:36

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John Ryder could retire from boxing with Canelo Alvarez defeat in title fight

John Ryder has suggested he may retire from boxing if he loses his undisputed title challenge against Canelo Alvarez.

'The Gorilla' will face the most formidable test of his boxing career when he steps in the ring with undisputed champion Alvarez in Mexico on May 6. Ryder has recorded significant wins against Daniel Jacobs and domestic rival Zach Parker to finally earn his title shot having been forced to go the hard way to earn his huge opportunity.

Alvarez recently outboxed Gennady Golovki n in a trilogy fight to get back on track after a loss to Dmitry Bivol when stepping up to 175lb. Ryder has previously suggested he could be coming to the twilight stages of his career, and a sixth defeat in the professional ranks could see a curtain brought down on his boxing stint.

"Yeah potentially it all depends on the manner that you lose," Ryder told Mirror Fighting ahead of his battle with Alvarez. "If you go in there and have a close fight then there will be big nights out there for you. But for me it is just about weighing it up from there on in. Is it worth your time, is it worth your body and is it worth the sacrifices?

"Becoming undisputed champion would be unbelievable. We have been lucky enough to have undisputed champions here like Josh Taylor and Katie Taylor and some other female fighters. For me it would be beyond my wildest dreams, I don't think I ever dreamed of becoming undisputed and having all the marbles.

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"It will be a great story if I can pull it off and obviously I don't intend to go over to Mexico and lose. It would be something special for sure and a motivational story for others to follow in the future I am sure."

John Ryder could retire if he loses to Canelo Alvarez (Francisco Guasco/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

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Ryder has been defeated five times in his career including against Rocky Fielding and most recently in controversial fashion against Callum Smith. It will be a tough ask for Ryder who will be competing in front of nearly 70,000 people in Mexico on his counterpart's home soil.

Many from the UK have tried and failed to beat Alvarez including his former rivals Smith and Billy Joe Saunders, but Ryder believes he needs to be aggressive to prevent himself being stopped. He continued: "I am planning on coming to Guadalajara and causing an upset on May 6, don't go making plans for September yet because chances are you will be rematching me.

"We have seen people mix it up and try to outbox him and ultimately he gets there in the end. I have got something he hasn't really seen before and I have planned and trained with my all to come away victorious on May 6."

Ben Davies