Canelo Alvarez won the super middleweight world title for the first time in 12 years in his native Mexico.
Canelo Alvarez retained his undisputed super middleweight world title by defeating John J. Ryder (John Ryder).
Alvarez improved to 59-2-2 with 120-107 on one card and 118-109 on the other two.
“I hit him too hard on the head, but he didn’t go down,” Alvarez said after Saturday night’s game at the open-air Akron Stadium in his hometown of Guadalajara.
Alvarez and Ryder started a slow-paced battle in the first two rounds, but Alvarez went straight to the right and Ryder started to suffer a nosebleed after the third round.
The Mexican continued to press in the fourth round, hitting the ball to the ground before sending Ryder to the mat with a right hook to the jaw.
Ryder made Alvarez uncomfortable in the fifth and took a few shots to the Mexican’s face, but Alvarez hit another in the ninth. Ryder stumbled, but picked himself up and responded with a shot that rocked the Mexican.
Alvarez admitted he wasn’t entirely confident with his left hand at the opening clock.
“It takes a few rounds for me to start punching and know my hands are good,” he said. “now I understand.”
A bloodied Ryder ended the fight well in the final two rounds, but not enough to unsettle his opponent.
“He’s probably past his best, he can’t play me, he wants to stop me but can’t,” Ryder told the media after the game.
“If I hadn’t had a problem with my nose it might have been different and it took me a few rounds to get used to it.”
It was Alvarez’s first game since surgery on his left wrist last March. Before the fight, he said injuries had slowed him down in his previous four fights, including a loss to light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivor a year ago.
After a tough win over Ryder, Alvarez has his sights set on a rematch against the Russians in September.
“That’s what we’re aiming for, but we’ll see,” he said.
