Saul "Canelo" Alvarez is still king of the super middleweights. Alvarez retained his undisputed super middleweight championship on Saturday night, bludgeoning John Ryder over 12 rounds to win a wide unanimous decision in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The fight was the first for Alvarez in his home country in more than a decade and he'd promised his fans he would deliver a knockout. It seemed the former pound-for-pound king would deliver on his promise early. After drawing a steady stream of blood from Ryder's nose, Alvarez landed a right hand that sent Ryder to the canvas in Round 5.
While it looked initially as though Ryder would not beat the count, he did manage to make it back to his feet and continue to fight hard.
Alvarez hurt Ryder several more times in the fight but never managed to score another knockdown, let alone secure the knockout. Still, almost every round was dominated by Alvarez's left to the body and right hand to the head.
One of the biggest changes Ryder made to survive the remaining rounds was to fall back to his jab. When Ryder was able to pump the jab out, it threw off Alvarez's timing. When Alvarez would begin to get rolling offensively, Ryder would push in and smother the attack. It wasn't necessarily a strategy that would win him the fight, but it did give Ryder something of a moral victory in surviving to the final bell.
The champion's dominance was on display on the final scorecards, with the official scorecards reading 120-107, 118-109 and 118-109. While not scoring the knockout in his return to his hometown may have stung, Alvarez maintained that he was content with the way the fight played out.
"It's a historic moment for me," Alvarez said after the fight. "I'm blessed to be here with my people who support me from the beginning. I'm proud to be here. ... You know, I'm happy with the fight. I'm happy the people had a great fight. He's a strong fighter, I know that. I'm not surprised about it."
After David Benavidez scored an impressive win over former champion Caleb Plant, a new top challenger for Alvarez's status as undisputed champion at super middleweight emerged.
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Despite that, Alvarez seems to be locked in on a rematch with WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol. Bivol upset Alvarez in May 2022, a fight that was Alvarez's attempt to win light heavyweight gold for the second time in his career. Since then, Alvarez has had to balance his desire for a rematch with the mandatory challengers for his titles at super middleweight.
After defeating rival career rival Gennady Golovkin in a trilogy fight and dominating Ryder, Alvarez's options for his next fight are wide open.
"You know, everybody knows, we want the rematch with Bivol," Alvarez said. "If the fight with Bivol doesn't happen, we'll see what happens. I can fight everybody."
Bivol has repeatedly brought up that the rematch should happen at super middleweight for Alvarez's four world titles. Again, Alvarez shot down the idea, saying, "Same rules, same everything. I just want it that way."
Ryder now must go back to the drawing board. He has lost two shots at world championship glory. The fight with Alvarez had a clear result while his previous world title challenge had a far more controversial result with Callum Smith winning a highly-questionable decision.
After four consecutive wins to earn another shot at the title, Ryder is unlikely to get another world title opportunity at super middleweight, especially with Alvarez holding all four world titles at the weight.
CBS Sports was with you throughout the entire way on Saturday with the live results and highlights below.
Fight card, results
- Canelo Alvarez (c) def. John Ryder via unanimous decision (120-107, 118-109, 118-109)
- Julio Cesar Martinez (c) def. Ronal Batista via 11th-round TKO
- Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela def. Steve Spark via split decision (96-93, 94-95, 95-94)
- Oleksandr Gvozdyk def. Ricards Bolotniks via sixth-round TKO
Alvarez vs. Ryder scorecard, live coverage
| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alvarez (c) | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 118 |
| Ryder | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 109 |