John Ryder: ‘Canelo in Mexico? If you think that’s big, wait for the rematch’

J ohn Ryder’s boyhood dream was to be a firefighter and on Saturday night he may need to draw on that hazy past to fight the blazing inferno that could engulf him when he steps into the ring against Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez in Guadalajara. Canelo, the flame-haired Mexican boxing legend, remains the most popular fighter in the world and this defence of his undisputed world super-middleweight title is his first bout in his home country since November 2011.

Mexico has been in a fever all week, especially in the teeming city of Guadalajara, 20 miles from where the boxer grew up in Juanacatlán. Ryder, the aspiring fire-fighter, grew up on Upper Street in Islington, which will seem a very long way away in the final hours before he faces the might and fury of Canelo in front of a fiery crowd of 48,000 at the Estadio Akron.

Ryder is one of the most amiable boxers in the hard-bitten fight business and so he replies honestly when I ask if he suffers from nerves. “I’m not uncontrollable but I do,” he says. “The nerves do set in and I’m better when I’m around people. It’s not good for me to be left alone because I’ll sit on it too much.

“Even before the Zach Parker fight [his last bout six months ago when he defeated his previously unbeaten British rival in London] I was trying to get an afternoon nap and it was difficult. I woke myself up with an unbelievable rush of energy and the heart rate pumping.” He laughs quietly. “It lets you know that you’re alive.”

Ryder has boxed professionally for 12-and-a-half years and had 37 bouts, so he has developed ways to stop his boxing dreams turning into nightmares. “It’s part of my routine at night to do a bit of visualisation and think about the fight and put myself in that arena, put myself