Canelo Alvarez Defeats John Ryder To Retain Super Middleweight Crown

Defeating John Ryder in front of more than 50,000 fans in his first fight in Mexico since 2011, Canelo Alvarez successfully defended his undisputed super middleweight world championship.

With scores of 120-107 on one card and 118-109 on the other two, Alvarez easily won, bringing his record up to 59-2-2.

"I hit him too much in the head and he did not go down," Alvarez said after the fight on Saturday night at the open-air Akron Stadium in his hometown of Guadalajara.

The first two rounds of the battle between Alvarez and Ryder were slow-moving, but after the third round Ryder began bleeding from the nose when Alvarez hit with a straight right.

In the fourth round, the Mexican kept up the pressure and connected with body blows before sending Ryder to the ground with a right hook to the chin.

Alvarez made Ryder uncomfortable in the fifth round and took a few strokes to the Mexican's face, but Alvarez responded with another right in the ninth. After stumbling, Ryder sprang up and fired back, shaking the Mexican, Al Jazeera reported.

Alvarez said that his left hand was not quite secure from the first bell.

"I needed a couple of rounds to start punching and knowing I'm good with the hand," he said. "Now I know."

The last two rounds of the fight were well-closed by Ryder, who had a bloodied face, but it wasn't enough to pull off the surprise.

After the fight, Ryder told the media, "He's probably past his best, he could not get me out there, he wanted to stop me and could not do it."

"It could have been a little different without the problem to my nose, it took me a few rounds to get adjusted."

It was Alvarez's first fight since his left wrist surgery in March of last year. He claimed the injury had slowed him down in his previous four fights, including his defeat to light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol a year prior.

Alvarez plans a rematch with the Russian in September after winning a tough victory against Ryder.

"That's what we are aiming for, but we will see," he said.