John Ryder believes he will meet another top-level fighter, Jaime Munguia, at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday, January 27, live worldwide on DAZN, but says the undefeated Mexican has weaknesses that he can blow.
Ryder spoke to the Matchroom Boxing Podcast about facing Munguia, training over Christmas and what he got out of facing Mexican megastar Canelo Alvarez.
Ryder (32-6 18 KOs) returns to action after his brave effort against Canelo Álvarez in Guadalajara, Mexico in September, where the Brit faced the Mexican ace in front of more than 60,000 fans and won them over with his brave performance against the undisputed 168 pound king. Ryder now heads to Phoenix for what promises to be another exciting battle against a Mexican star, this time with undefeated former super welterweight king and defending WBC silver super middleweight champion Munguía (42-0, 33 KOs) .
The 27-year-old thrilled fight fans in his last outing, a rollercoaster fight of the year in Ontario, California, against the hardened Sergiy Derevyanchenko in June, with a 12th-round knockdown proving the difference for Munguia. beating the Ukrainian.
Ryder knows his January 27 foe is considering his own clash with Canelo, but ‘El Gorila’ believes Derevyanchenko exposed flaws in Munguía’s game that he can expose and use to achieve a second victory on American soil.
“Jaime won fight of the year last year and I’m sure this fight can be a fight of the year candidate for 2024,” Ryder said. “He has an incredible record, 42-0.
“He has the carrot in the fight with Canelo, like I had against Zach Parker. That adds pressure, you know he’s potentially next so you have to go out and produce, so now it’s up to him.
“I’ve had my chance with Canelo. I doubt I’ll get another one if I beat Munguía, but that’s the goal, to be in the biggest and best fights possible.
“I rate him, I think his record is not padded but he has been well maneuvered, in his last fight with Sergiy he showed some vulnerabilities, he made a change of trainer to Freddie Roach and that could be a good thing, it may not, we’ll see. I know what he brings to the table, he takes a lot of shots and he takes them with bad intentions, but that’s when I think I can take advantage of him.
“Sergiy gave him all the problems in the world last time, the last round came and he overcame him and the scorecards showed it. So I hope that the fight is judged fairly, that I get a fair roll of the dice and that’s all I can ask for.”
