Undisputed 168-pound champion Canelo Alvarez defeated a game John Ryder by a unanimous decision to retain his titles Saturday in Zapopan, Mexico, not far from Alvarez’s hometown of Guadalajara.
The final scores were 120-107, 118-109 and 118-109. Boxing Junkie scored it 117-110 for Alvarez, nine rounds to three.
Alvarez pressured Ryder from early in the fight, pounding the challenger to the body with his left and landing hard rights with some consistency.
He put Ryder down and might’ve broken his nose in Round 5 with a perfect left-right combination. A bloodied Ryder was able to get up but seemed to be on shaky legs. However, he gutted out the rest of the round, demonstrating that he had no intention of quitting.
Ryder actually had some decent rounds after that. He largely matched Alvarez’s work rate and avoided big shots, although the fact he could never hurt the champion made his mission next to impossible.
Alvarez was the verge of a knockout midway through Round 9, when he rocked Ryder with a right hand to the head. However, once again, he managed to survive and then continue to fight back.
Ryder had solid rounds down the stretch but was in much too deep of a hole to climb out.
A full report will follow shortly.
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ROUND 12
Competitive, back-and-forth final round. Also relatively uneventful. So Alvarez won’t get his knockout, which is a surprise. He’ll win by a wide margin, though. That’s the main objective.
ROUND 11
Alvarez might yet get a knockout but he’s not desperately seeking one. He just continues to pressure Ryder, throwing to the body and head while he looks for an opening to finally end this thing. Meanwhile, Ryder looks pretty good. He’s still fighting competitively.
ROUND 10
Ryder might’ve won that round, although it doesn’t mean much in terms of the outcome. He looks remarkably fresh given the punishment he has taken. He actually outworked Alvarez that round. Ryder undoubtedly is winning fans in what will probably be a defeat.
ROUND 9
Wow! Ryder is displaying some heart. Alvarez rocked him in the final 30 seconds. It appeared he was ready to go. But he somehow survived and continued to fight back. Amazing.
ROUND 8
Same pattern. Alvarez pressuring, landing lefts to the body and rights to head. Again, he’s not landing that one big shot that can end the fight but he continues to break down Ryder and win rounds. Kudos to Ryder for his resilience. It’s hard to believe he’s still standing.
ROUND 7
Ryder continues to hang in there, trying to answer whatever Alvarez throws at him even though he’s covered in blood and must be having difficulty breathing through his nose. However, while Alvarez isn’t landing huge shots, he’s landing some punishing ones that continue to wear down Ryder.
ROUND 6
Pretty good bonce-back round for Ryder. He isn’t getting Alvarez’s respect with anything he throws but he’s busy. And he landed a few eye-catching punches. That said, Alvarez continued to land his own blows. Ryder will be able to take only so much.
ROUND 5
Ryder goes down from a left-right combination midway through the round! He got up and fought courageously after the knockdown but he looks like a beaten man. It seems he can’t go on much longer.
ROUND 4
Ryder is still competitive, matching Alvarez punch for punch that round. The problem for him is that Canelo’s punches are more accurate and much, much harder. And it’s Alvarez who is walking down Ryder, which is a bad look for the challenger. Also, Ryder is a bloody mess.
ROUND 3
Big round for Alvarez. who asserted himself that round. He landed a hard right early that drew blood from Ryder’s nose. Canelo then landed several more rights. Ryder continued to fight back, landed a few shots of his own, but Alvarez seemed to take control.
ROUND 2
Alvarez is still trying to figure out what’s in front of him. He jabbed a little, landed a few body shots, but this is a competitive fight so far. We’ll see what happens when the fighters really open up.
ROUND 1
Mostly a feel out round, although Alvarez was the busier of the two. Canelo unloaded a few big shots but didn’t really land cleanly. They both connected on a few body shots. We’re only getting warmed up.
***
Here come the fighters. We’re only a few minutes away from Alvarez-Ryder.
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Julio Cesar Martinez stopped Ronal Batista in the 11th round to retain his WBC 112-pound title. The official time of the stoppage was 1:00.
Batista (15-3, 9 KOs) performed well in the first half of the fight, outboxing and outworking the Mexican champion. However, Martinez (20-2, 15 KOs) put his Panamanian foe down in Round 8 and controlled the fight the rest of the way.
Martinez landed a series of hard, accurate shots with Batista’s back against the ropes, which prompted the referee to stop the fight.
Batista also lost a point for punching Martinez after the bell to end Round 4.
A full report will follow shortly.
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Gabriel Gollaz of Mexico upset 140-pound contender Steve Spark of Australia by a split decision in a 10-round bout.
One judge scored it 95-94 for Spark (16-3, 14 KOs) but the other two had Gollaz (27-3-1, 16 KOs) winning, 96-93 and 95-94. Boxing Junkie scored it 96-93 for Spark, seven rounds to three.
Spark went down in the sixth round, the only time either fighter hit the canvas.
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Featherweight prospect Nathan Devon Rodriguez (11-0, 7 KOs) of the Los Angeles area defeated Alexander Mejia (19-6, 8 KOs) of Mexico by a majority decision in a 10-rounder. The scores were 96-93, 96-94 and 95-95.
Rodriguez is trained by Eddy Reynoso, Canelo Alvarez’s longtime mentor.
***
Former 175-pound titleholder Oleksandr Gvozdyk knocked out Ricards Bolotniks in the seventh round of a scheduled 10-round bout.
Gvozdyk (19-1, 15 KOs) hurt and cut Beolotniks (19-7-1, 8 KOs) with a right hand to the head and then followed with a series of shots that forced the bloodied Latvian to take a knee. Referee Celestino Ruiz gave him a good look and stopped the fight.
The official time of the stoppage was 1:53 of Round 7.
Gvozdyk, 36, was fighting for the second time since a three-plus-year layoff following his knockout loss to Artur Beterbiev in 2019, which cost the Ukrainian his title belt.
***
Undisputed 168-pound champion Canelo Alvarez is scheduled to return to the ring against mandatory challenger John Ryder on pay-per-view Saturday in Zapopan, Mexico, near Alvarez’s hometown of Guadalajara.
The featured bouts on the card begin at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT. The main event will take place later in show.
Boxing Junkie will post round-by-round updates and the result of the main event immediately after it ends. Simply return to this post and refresh when the time comes.
Full coverage – a fight story, photo gallery and analysis – will follow on separate posts the day of the fight and the following day.
Enjoy the fights!
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