John Ryder (born 19 July 1988) is a British

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

. He has held the WBO

interim An interim is a period of temporary pause or change in a sequence of events, or a temporary state, and is often applied to transitional political entities. Interim may also refer to: Temporary organizational arrangements (general concept) *Provis ...

super-middleweight Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing In professional boxing, super middleweight is contested between the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, in which boxers can weigh between 160 pounds ( ...

title since 2022, having previously held the WBA interim super-middleweight title in 2019. At regional level he has challenged twice for the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have be ...

title in 2013 and 2015, and once for the British super-middleweight title in 2017.

Amateur career

As an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

, Ryder fought for Angel Amateur Boxing Club in his birthplace of

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

, winning 30 fights out of 35.

Professional career

Ryder turned professional on 10 September 2010, scoring a first-round

technical knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

(TKO) against Ben Deghani. Having won his first fifteen fights, Ryder faced fellow undefeated prospect

Billy Joe Saunders Billy Joe Saunders (born 30 August 1989) is a British professional boxer. He is the first fighter from the Travelling community to win world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO middleweight title from 2015 to 2018 and the W ...

for his

and Commonwealth middleweight titles on 21 September 2013, losing a close

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighter ...

(UD) with scores of 115–113, 115–113 and 115–114 for Saunders. Ryder won his first regional championship—the vacant WBO Inter-Continental middleweight title—on 11 October 2014, defeating Theophilus Tetteh via fifth-round TKO. He defended this title once, against Billi Facundo Godoy with a tenth-round TKO. After Saunders vacated the British middleweight title, a bout was held between top contenders Ryder and

Nick Blackwell Nick Blackwell (born 27 October 1990) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2009 to 2016. He won the English middleweight title in 2010, at the age of twenty, becoming the youngest boxer to do so. In 2011 and 2012 he challen ...

on 30 May 2015. Ryder was widely ahead on the scorecards when he was stopped on his feet by Blackwell in the seventh round. Ryder bounced back on 30 January 2016, winning his second regional championship—the vacant WBA International middleweight title—with a UD over

Sergey Khomitsky Sergey Khomitsky ( be, Siarhei Khamitski; born 13 September 1974) is a Belarusian professional boxer who has challenged once for the WBA interim middleweight title in 2015. Professional career Khomitsky made his professional debut on 30 Janua ...

. Ryder defended his WBA International middleweight title against

Jack Arnfield Jack Arnfield (born 22 May 1989) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2007 to 2018, and challenged twice for the British middleweight title. Professional career Arnfield vs. Byrne Arnfield made his professional debut o ...

on 24 September 2016, losing by UD over twelve rounds. Ryder rebounded in his next fight, defeating

Adam Etches Adam Etches (born 26 January 1991) is a retired British professional boxer who fought at middleweight. Starting out and amateur career Etches started out as a kickboxer and won various titles and trophies but decided to take up boxing as it w ...

by UD to win the

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

International

title. On 22 April 2017, Ryder moved up to super-middleweight to face

Rocky Fielding Michael "Rocky" Fielding (born 5 August 1987) is a British former professional boxer. He held the WBA (Regular) super-middleweight title in 2018. At regional level, he held the Commonwealth super-middleweight title twice between 2013 and 2017 ...

for the British title but lost on a controversial

split decision A split decision (SD) is a winning criterion in boxing, most commonly in full-contact combat sports, in which two of the three judges score one particular competitor as the winner, while the third judge scores for the other competitor. A split dec ...

(SD). On 5 May, 2018, Ryder faced domestic rival

Jamie Cox Jamie Cox (born 15 October 1969) is an Australian cricketer and former opening batsman for Tasmania in Australia's domestic competitions. He then played county cricket in England where he captained Somerset. He is a former member of the Crick ...

The O2 Arena The O2 Arena, commonly known as the O2 (stylised as The O2 arena), is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of the O2 entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the s ...

on the undercard of the rematch between

David Haye David Deron Haye (born 13 October 1980) is a British former professional boxer who competed between 2002 and 2018. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, and was the first British boxer to reach the final of the World Ama ...

and

Tony Bellew Anthony Lewis Bellew (born 30 November 1982) is an English former professional boxer who competed from 2007 to 2018, and has since worked as a boxing analyst and commentator. He held the WBC cruiserweight title from 2016 to 2017, and challeng ...

. In a fight that had a grueling start, both fighters were trading punches from close range early. This led to Ryder dropping Cox in the second round. Cox would not be able to beat the referee's count, although by a tiny margin, earning Ryder the KO victory. In his next fight, Ryder faced undefeated Russian challenger Andrey Sirotkin. Sirotkin gave Ryder problems early in the fight with his jab. By the time the fight came to the sixth round, Ryder looked like he was gaining control of the fight, hurting Sirotkin with a body shot. The punishment continued in the seventh round, culminating in a right hook to Sirotkin's body, from which the Russian would not recover. Ryder was awarded the KO win in the seventh round. On the

Canelo Álvarez Santos Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez Barragán (; born 18 July 1990) is a Mexican professional boxer. He has won multiple world championships in four weight classes from light middleweight to light heavyweight, including unified titles in three of ...

vs. Daniel Jacobs card in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

in May 2019, Ryder beat Bilal Akkawy by TKO in the third round to win the vacant WBA

super-middleweight title and put himself in line to challenge

Callum Smith Callum John Smith (born 23 April 1990) is an English professional boxer. He held the WBA (Super) and '' Ring'' magazine super-middleweight titles from 2018 to 2020, and at regional level the British and European super-middleweight titles bet ...

for the

WBA (Super) The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is the oldest and one of four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxi ...

and ''Ring'' magazine super-middleweight titles. Following the successful defeat of Akkawy, Ryder fought Callum Smith for the super-middleweight titles in November 2019, losing via UD. Ryder managed to keep Smith on the inside for the beginning rounds. In the third round, Smith was able to impose his will, setting up for right hands with his long job. Ryder managed to get Smith to fight on the inside again in the fifth round. As the fight went on, frequent clinching slowed the pace down. In the last rounds, Smith looked like he was tired, while Ryder was being the aggressor. Smith managed to land a couple of right hands before the final bell, as Ryder was still charging forward. The judges scored the fight 117–111 and 116–112 twice in favour of Smith, with some media outlets describing the scores as "controversial".

Professional boxing record

References

External links

*
John Ryder profile
at

Matchroom Boxing Matchroom Sport is a sporting event promotions company founded by English entrepreneur Barry Hearn and run by Hearn and his son Eddie Hearn. It first came to attention in the sports of snooker and boxing and is also involved in pool, bowling, go ...

John Ryder - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankings
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryder, John 1988 births Living people Middleweight boxers English male boxers People from Islington (district) Boxers from Greater London Super-middleweight boxers