DEPENDING on your point of view, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is either a lover or hater of British fighters. How else to explain him electing as his next opponent the eighth Brit of his career in the shape of John Ryder on Saturday May 7 in Guadalajara, Mexico?

The roll call of top British talent to face and come up short against the Mexican pound for pound great is staggering in the way it confirms his longevity and quality in a sport that is the natural enemy of both. Consider the evidence — Matthew Hatton (2011); Ryan Rhodes (2011); Amir Khan (2016); Liam Smith (2016); Rocky Fielding (2018); Callum Smith (2020); and finally Billy Joe Saunders (2021).

For John Ryder, a solid pro with a record that reveals him to have been up to this point the archetypal nearly man of the fight game, fighting Canelo in his hometown in front of a packed stadium of screaming Mexican fans is the opportunity of a lifetime and fight he is approaching with enjoyment rather than dread. Even so, we can only hope that before the fight he does not happen to watch the recent BBC item featuring Matthew Hatton, titled “How to survive Canelo.”

Hatton, the first British fighter to take on the Canelo challenge, offered up three tips in this regard. The first is to prioritise the judicious use of footwork in order to remain elusive against the enormous artillery the Mexican has in his arsenal. However, where Ryder is concerned, this piece of advice belongs on the same level as advising a statue to jump up and down. This is because Ryder is a stand and trade merchant for whom feet were made for standing not dancing.

Point number two on Hatton’s list in how to survive against Canelo is for Ryder to use his boxing brain and not allow himself to get sucked into a war. Well, good luck with that one. The third and definitely the most salient piece of advice Hatton offers Ryder is to pack paracetamol. “I boxed him [Canelo] a good few years ago,” Matthew Hatton quipped, “and I’m still on two a day now.”

So far as the bookies are concerned John Ryder has two chances against Alvarez — none and none whatsoever — and based on their respective records it is hard to disagree? 

This said, Ryder and his trainer Tony Sims do fancy their chances. Even a fighter as elite as Canelo can’t last forever, and a defeat to Dimitry Bivol followed by a lacklustre performance against old foe Gennady Golovkin are suggestive of decline starting to set in. Add to the mix surgery on his left hand after the Golovkin fight and Ryder and Sims may be cleverer than the bookies when it comes to the odds on May 7.

Shifting focus, Scotland’s Josh Taylor is currently deep into preparations for his upcoming battle with Teofilo Lopez at Madison Square Garden on June 10. Having decamped from Ben Davison’s stable in Essex to team up with Joe McNally in Liverpool, Taylor has rediscovered his love of boxing, information he shared with this writer during a phone conversation last week.

Taylor v Lopez is a genuine marquee contest, and where better to host it than Madison Square Garden, boxing’s most iconic venue. 

Inactivity has plagued Taylor since his controversial split decision victory against Jack Catterall in February 2022, and so in choosing to face Lopez at 140 rather than rematch Catterall, he is in certain respects rolling the dice. But then Taylor has been open in stating that he needs a name like Lopez to get the juices flowing and give it his all at this stage of his career.

Taylor: “I think what I had achieved in 18 fights and in only four or five years as a professional, becoming an undisputed champion, no one's ever done it before in the UK in the four belt era, creating a massive part of history. I just got a little bit complacent [against Catterall].” 

Teofimo Lopez’s standout performance was his victory over Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2020 to become the unified world lightweight champion. Upon losing his titles in his next fight against Australia’s George Kambosos Jr, this son of Honduran immigrants stepped up from 135 to 140 and hasn’t looked the same since.

Stalking Lopez as he gets himself ready physically and mentally to face Taylor is the controversy he stoked by racially charged comments during a recent podcast interview. Lopez: “This is my last fight on ESPN … If they want the black fighters, they can keep them.” During the same interview, Lopez also stated that boxers can take someone else’s life in a boxing ring and “get away with it,” before saying that this was “cool.”

With such disgusting remarks on being able to take another man’s life in a boxing ring and getting away with it, Lopez joins former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, who once talked up his desire to have a body on his record.

Fighters who think like this, never mind talk like this, should face a lengthy suspension and stiff fines. Boxing doesn’t need this kind of nonsense and should do whatever it takes to drive it out of the sport if it is to retain any kind of integrity and propriety.

What is beyond doubt is that going in against him, Josh Taylor will enjoy the solid support of the vast majority of neutrals, now looking to see Lopez taught a hard lesson. When it comes to how Taylor sets about this task, the answer is a simple one. All he needs to do is be himself.

His decision to part company with Ben Davison was based on the fact that Davison tried to change his style away from the explosive and ferocious style that saw him become undisputed super lightweight champion after just 18 fights. As long as he does the weight properly and healthily which is something he did not do for Catterall, the Scot should prevail and win the hearts and minds of the fans in what will be a sold out Madison Square Garden on June 10.