CANELO STILL THE KING OF THE RING

JOHN RYDER deserves his crack at Canelo Alvarez – but he faces a huge challenge to take down the Mexican king on Coronation weekend.

The British supermiddleweight earned his shot at the WBA, IBF, WBO and WBC champ by beating my man Zach Parker.

We respected Ryder for taking on the challenge and coming on one of our shows for the right to face Canelo (far left with Ryder) in a WBO ‘interim’ fight.

It is what fighters should do. Take chances and gambles. The rewards are there and he got his when Parker suffered a nasty hand injury.

Parker will be back soon and pushing for his own world title shot again.

Maybe Ryder could have stayed on his own course but he was bold and brave and now he gets a huge payday in Mexico. I feel Canelo is slightly on the slide. He may be only 32 but this is his 65th pro fight.

He lost to Dmitry Bivol and I didn’t think he was at his best when he beat Gennady Golovkin either.

But let’s not beat around the bush on this: Ryder is really up against it and it will be one of the all-time shocks if he pulls it off.

He has to do it in front of 50,000 fans desperate to see their hero for the first time in almost 12 years.

Good luck to him but I think Canelo will just have too much for him. Back on British soil, we are building up to our York Hall show next Friday.

Unbeaten cruiserweight Ellis Zorro takes on former British champion and experienced contender Hosea Burton in the main event.

Zorro is a terrific prospect and this will show us where he is at with his progression against the cousin of Tyson Fury.

It’s an exciting card at the famous boxing venue full of prospects and it is also live on BT Sport.