Ryder hopes to land Smith rematch after Canelo decision

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With it looking unlikely that Canelo will opt to face Smith next, there’s one person in particular who’d like another shot.

By all accounts there’s been essentially no movement on Callum Smith’s hopes to land a big money fight against Canelo Alvarez next. Smith thought he would be a leading candidate but it appears Canelo hasn’t show even the slightest interest. Yesterday we posted a story on Smith’s trainer expressing his disappointment in the current Canelo-Murata reports, and now, ironically enough, it’s John Ryder’s team expressing almost the exact same disappointment about Smith.

Smith and Ryder met in a super middleweight title defense last November where Smith managed to win a highly questionable decision. Many, including BLH, scored that fight for Ryder, which would’ve been a big upset. But instead Ryder had his dreams crushed after a pretty deserving performance.

So while Smith longs for Canelo, Ryder too longs for a rematch with Smith — a rematch Ryder representative Charlie Sims says Smith hasn’t shown any interest in lately.

“We were in early stages of talking about the rematch as it’s the fight we wanted. At this stage, he doesn’t want to unify with Billy Joe Saunders or fight John Ryder in a rematch, that’s according to Joe Gallagher. Everyone just has to sit and wait on Canelo to make a decision. But nobody knows who it will be. At the end of the day, if Canelo chooses not to fight Smith, we want and believe we should have that rematch.”

Sims would continue by saying that if they ultimately don’t manage to land a rematch with Smith, they’ll turn their attention towards Billy Joe Saunders — who’s also sitting around hoping to crack the Canelo sweepstakes. But for now nobody is making a move until Canelo officially selects his next opponent.