Canelo Alvarez claims he's "not thinking" about Retirement

Canelo Alvarez claims he's "not thinking" about retiring as he prepares to defend his undisputed super middleweight belt against challenger John Ryder on May 6th in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) is shown in a video training this week for Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs) doing a lot of head and upper body movement to improve on his defence.

In an interview, Canelo said: “I’m not thinking about retirement yet.”

That's significant for Canelo since WBO mandatory Ryder works hard and will camp in front of the Mexican star, unleashing relentless shots. Ryder flourishes in the trenches, where he can fire shots at will and wear down his opponents.

If Canelo cannot match Ryder's prolific punch volume, he can at least adjust his upper body to avoid the punches. That is the logical explanation for Canelo's focus on defence rather than trying to rectify these obvious flaws.

Ryder is important for Canelo because he can utilize him as prep for his rematch with Dmitry Bivol in September.

Eddy Reynoso, Canelo's trainer/manager, indicated that they will employ counter-punching to defeat Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs), and he is convinced it will succeed. However, Canelo must overcome Ryder's fearsome challenge because this may be a nightmare for him.