JOHN RYDER sits at the end of his couch in his London flat and scoops up his TV’s remote control. He holds it in his hands, the same ones that went 12 hard rounds with boxing’s franchise Canelo Alvarez a few weeks earlier, and turns the flatscreen on. The softly-spoken “Gorilla” scrolls through some menus, settles on DAZN, and starts to load the network. He’s watched the fight back twice since that incredible night in the Guadalajara cauldron on May 6, when he and Canelo shared 12 blood-soaked rounds in front of 60,000 fans.
After the contest, there were a smattering of lines about the 32-year-old Mexican great being in decline, but the majority of reports focused on Ryder’s bravery. The Islington underdog had ventured into the lion’s den. Ryder had his nose obliterated with the last punch of the second round. He was floored in round five, under heavy fire in the ninth but, in the end, he had won the crowd and claimed a moral victory, finishing the fight with an awe-inspiring defiance, unable to breathe through his nose having spent 30 minutes swallowing torrents of his own blood. The spoils of war? Ryder has since been able to buy his first house.
As we rewatch the fight, about four floors up in a central block of flats, Ryder searches DAZN. Whether it is modesty or humility, one can’t tell, but Ryder clicks on the magnifying glass logo to find his fight and starts typing. ‘C… A… N….’ “There it is,” he says, as Canelo v Ryder pops up.
THE BUILD-UP
Well, there are other options that appear on DAZN’s menu. For a start, as we investigate, there are ‘Canelo Classics’, but they feature the Mexican’s fights with Avni Yildirim, the third go-round with Gennady Golovkin, and the Billy Joe Saunders clash. Ryder’s hasn’t fallen into that category. You can also watch Canelo’s ringwalk for Ryder in its entirety, but you cannot see Ryder’s and that’s not on the full-fight broadcast, either.
Of course, none if it fazes Ryder. He knew what the assignment was. Many felt Ryder was a gimme, stay-busy-type fight for Canelo, but Ryder did not care about their opinions, the same way he is not bothered about being able to see his own ringwalk. After a long camp with Tony Sims, the team flew out to Los Angeles two weeks before the fight. But in Culver City, Ryder could not settle. He didn’t like the smog, he dreaded something going wrong; twisting an ankle, getting cut, anything that might throw the fight into any kind of jeopardy. So he trained to get through it rather than to peak.
Instantly, in Guadalajara – with the fight just six days away – he was more relaxed. The weather was better, not too hot, and he welcomed by the fans. “Honestly, they were fantastic,” he recalls. “It was a really humbling experience. Where Canelo is on this pedestal as a superstar, I don’t think they like that, because he’s no longer that man of the people.” Ryder got in amongst the general population. He visited a barbers, went to the shops, the supermarket, and was mobbed for selfies. Sometimes, he went out by himself. “I think people were quite shocked by it,” he says, smiling. Ryder certainly was. “I don’t get that attention back here!”
Ryder had spoken to Canelo before the Mexican’s bout with Billy Joe Saunders, but through their own engagements on fight week, little was said. Ryder was a fan of Canelo but he was there on business and Canelo was not interested in civilities. Ryder held court with the press on fight week and the US journalists did not bother to go. Was Ryder fussed? “I didn’t really want to answer questions anyway,” he says. “I just wanted to get to the fight.
MINDSET
Ryder was kept waiting in the corridor before his own ring entrance, but he was prepared for that. In fact, the work he did with mindset coach Greg Meehan had him ready to walk through walls. Ryder was in some kind of controlled frenzy on fight night and as we watch Canelo’s magnificent walk to the ring, the 100-plus-piece Mariachi band, the fireworks and the rest of it, it all seemed almost new to Ryder. On the night, it was deliberately blurred out. No boos. No cheers. “I was waiting for Canelo, [but] it wasn’t Canelo, it was just another man… not the superstar he is, just another fighter.” Then, when Canelo emerges on the stage, the crowd roars. “I can’t remember that,” Ryder says. And the pound-for-pound great, a heavy favourite to separate Ryder from his senses at some stage in the fight, starts walking towards him. Is there a point where it sinks in, and Ryder knows how big this is? “No,” recalls Ryder. “If I had let myself get engrossed in all that and the magnitude of the event, the razzmatazz, I might have just folded and been caught in the headlights. I did well to block it out. None of that bothered me.” Now, however, he can see it through different eyes; as a fan, as someone who’s given it his all. “That was a good atmosphere, that was packed out,” he says, as the DAZN cameras pan out and around the vast Estadio Akron. “I didn’t really see all the people in the stands during the fight. Looking back, seeing the pictures of the stadium, fireworks going off… it’s surreal. I just had tunnel vision. Looking back now, it’s spectacular, isn’t it?”
THE FIGHT
When Ryder came face-to-face with Canelo, the red-headed icon stared down, and Ryder did not know what to make of it. “I like to have a look in someone’s eyes, but he didn’t do that,” Ryder added. “I went to make eye contact and it wasn’t there and I thought, ‘If you’re not going to do it, I’m not going to do it to you.’” Ryder looked awkwardly away, too, but after the bell – and with Canelo coming at him, hoping to impress his compatriots in his first fight at home in 12 years – Ryder wanted to be patient, get a gauge of Canelo’s speed, watch him, see when he throws and not buy any of Canelo’s feints. “When he threw that first right hand, I thought, ‘I spotted that a mile off. It wasn’t fast,’” Ryder remembers.
Then, Ryder’s idea was to implement his own grit and stubbornness, never retreating to the ropes – certainly not getting caught on them – and not allowing Canelo to get second-phase attacks off. When Canelo threw shots and stopped, Ryder would have to reply immediately. It was risky, but a clear sign that Ryder would not be bullied by his opponent or intimidated by the occasion. “Good first round, I might have nicked that round,” he remembers thinking, walking back to his corner. “He [Canelo] didn’t land anything. I caught pretty much everything that he threw.” Round two was not dissimilar. Ryder expected Canelo to commit more, to throw more, due to his pre-fight pledges of an early stoppage. The crowd started to get behind their man with the three syllable “Ca-ne-lo” chants and then, with the final blow of the round, Canelo caught Ryder with a right hand and his nose exploded. “It’s frustrating,” Ryder says. “I stepped over the front foot and I caught it.”
THE NOSE
“It was instant. Instantly. I felt it come pouring out. It was a new experience. I’d never felt that before. Just feeling the blood pouring straight away.” A minute was not enough to fix a shattered nose. When Ryder emerged for the third, the crimson was pumping down his chest and clogging his nose. He could only breathe by opening his mouth and that was detrimental for a couple of reasons. Firstly, in his preparations with Meehan, they had worked on staying relaxed through nasal breathing. Now, in the midst of a crisis, Ryder needed to stay as relaxed as possible, but nasal breathing was firmly off the menu. Secondly, it sent unhelpful and partially untrue distress signals to Canelo. “It’s kidology and not showing that you’re hurt but you know if you’re bleeding like that, you’re losing that battle and breathing through your mouth you look tired…”
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