Sadly despite the hope, goodwill & even optimism that were generated beforehand, Ryan Rhodes was unsuccessful in his bid for Saul Alvarez's WBC Light Middleweight crown.
Rhodes was down in the 4th round but survived until the mid point of the final round when the referee's intervention coincided with the towel coming in from the
There was refreshing honesty from Ryan afterwards "Alvarez is a very good fighter. It's that simple, no excuses." The general consensus before the fight was that although it was going to be difficult to get a result,
I had doubts about whether Alvarez was worthy of all the hype surrounding him that has him earmarked as a future Mexican legend, but he answered a lot of questions. It was an incredibly mature performance, he was patient, knew when to launch attacks, moved & feinted nicely, utilised the old pro trick of working harder towards the end of the round to catch the judges eye...if he can do all this at 20 what will he be like when he's fully developed? The comments about lack of experience that the SKY commentary frequently made are misleading though, despite his age he's a veteran of 37 fights
Unclear where Rhodes goes next - he is still talented enough to dominate most fighters in Europe but does he have the desire top go over old ground at the age of 34, when another world title shot seems unlikely? When so much of his ring strategy is based on speed & reflexes, his confidence must have taken a knock to have met a fighter who was so much quicker & who negated all Ryan's strengths.
Nice work.
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