One of boxing’s best referees has been tasked to officiate a championship fight featuring one of the sport’s very best fighters.
Michael Griffin was appointed to oversee the Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez-John Ryder undisputed super middleweight championship clash. The Montreal-based referee is joined by judges Joseph Pasquale (New Jersey), Jeremy Hayes (Ontario, Canada) and Gerardo Martinez (San Juan, Puerto Rico), all four of whom will work their first fight involving either boxer.
Guadalajara’s Alvarez (58-2-2, 39KOs) attempts his second title defense as undisputed champion and fourth overall defense of at least one super middleweight title versus England’s Ryder. Their bout headlines a May 6 DAZN Pay-Per-View event from Estadio Akron in Zapopan, Mexico, just outside of Alvarez’s hometown.
The scheduled 12-round championship fight marks the first time the three assigned judges will work together. Pasquale was appointed by the IBF, Hayes by the WBA and Martinez by the WBO. Hayes is the only judge of the three to have never worked a bout involving Griffin as the referee.
Pasquale has served as a judge for five fights where Griffin was the assigned referee, by far the most shared experience among the four appointed officials for this bout. Scores weren’t needed for their last shared assignment, when former WBC heavyweight titlist Deontay Wilder knocked out Robert Helenius in the first round last October 15 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Griffin was assigned to the title eliminator by the WBC, who appointed the 26-year referee and judge for this contest.
Griffin has worked several high-profile events in recent years, including two historic bouts at Madison Square Garden. He was the referee for Andy Ruiz’s off-the-canvas, seventh-round knockout of then-unbeaten and unified heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua in June 2019, as well as the for the epic Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano undisputed lightweight championship last April 30.
Puerto Rico’s Martinez was one of three judges who scored for Billy Joe Saunders over David Lemieux in their December 2017 WBO middleweight title fight where Griffin was the third man in the ring. He will work his first title fight since the April 2021 Demetrius Andrade-Liam Williams WBO middleweight title fight. Andrade won a twelve-round, unanimous decision; Martinez’s score of 116-111 was on the mark.
Alvarez will fight in his home country for the first time in more than eleven years. His last ring appearance in Mexico came in a November 2011 sixth-round knockout of Kermit Cintron when he was still a junior middleweight. Alvarez has since fought 22 straight times in the U.S. where he has emerged as the sport’s biggest star, a pound-for-pound king for years and a two-time Fighter of the Year while winning titles in four weight divisions.
Ryder (32-5, 18KOs) enters his second career major title fight and first in Mexico. The 34-year-old southpaw from Islington, London suffered a controversial decision defeat to then-unbeaten countryman Callum Smith in their November 2019 WBA super middleweight title fight in Liverpool. Alvarez outpointed Smith by a wide margin in their December 2020 meeting to begin his current super middleweight championship reign.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox