He hasn’t always won at the top level but John Ryder has also never allowed to get lost In the moment.
The same tunnel-vision is applied to the biggest fight of his 13-year pro career, as England’s Ryder prepares to challenge undisputed super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. The promotion for their upcoming May 6 DAZN Pay-Per-View headliner from Estadio Akron in Zapopan, Mexico included a two-city press tour both on site at the fight venue as well as in San Diego, California, where Alvarez regularly trains.
“It was great to participate in that,” Ryder told BoxingScene.com. “I grew up watching (HBO’s) 24/7 and (Showtime’s) All Access. I’ve seen what it was all about and now I’ve actually lived it. It was a great experience. It was a little tiring but quite enjoyable. I got a lot of respect in both cities when I was out there. It was more enjoyable than being on social media and getting disrespected the moment people get behind their keyboard.
“Getting to Mexico and seeing what it had to offer, seeing the stadium was something. The first time I boxed at a stadium, in Hull on the Luke Campbell undercard. It’s nothing I haven’t experienced before.”
Ryder (32-5, 18KOs) held court despite the majority of the focus placed on Guadalajara’s Alvarez (58-2-2, 39KOs), who fights in his home country for the first time in more than a decade. The uphill battle of facing the sport’s biggest star on his turf is of no concern to the 34-year-old southpaw from Islington, London, who earned the opportunity with a fifth-round injury stoppage of their November 26 vacant interim WBO super middleweight title fight.
The brief back-and-forth in negotiating contracts allowed Ryder to get in the right frame of mind for the fight. Anything that comes of the promotion and fight week is all part of the game, as far as he’s concerned.
“We got the contracts through, we got them signed. That’s when it became real for me,” noted Ryder, who enters his second career major title fight. “Then we got to Guadalajara which first and foremost was a good experience.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox