John Ryder hoping to end Callum Smith’s plans to fight Canelo

With British super middleweight John Ryder (28-4, 16 KOs) squared away to challenge WBA titleholder Callum Smith (26-0, 19 KOs) for his belt next weekend in Liverpool, Ryder is walking into the fight with the expectation that he’s going to play the spoiler.

Smith has made it no secret that he’s hoping to score a major fight against Canelo Alvarez in the near future, which would at least seem to be a completely viable option at the moment — but not if he loses to Ryder. So when Ryder was asked if he thinks he’s being overlooked in this fight, Ryder replied:

“Massively. But he is the world champion and the city’s big dream of a show at Anfield. He is the front-runner but I’m coming to cause the upset and, if I beat Smith, there will be no Anfield show.

“I’d take a lot of pleasure in making the first boxing show at the Emirates Stadium. I’d take pleasure in going to Vegas and fighting Canelo.”

Ryder continues by suggesting that he takes comfort in all of the pressure being on Smith in this outing, and that he believes he has the style to exploit Smith’s shortcomings. He’ll have to put it all together on fight night though, as Smith will surely represent a bigger challenge than any of Ryder’s previous opponents. Ryder is currently riding a four fight knockout streak since he dropped a split decision to Rocky Fielding in 2017.