Unpopular opinion. Smith vs Ryder was not a clear Ryder win.

Aside from maybe a few body shots, he barely touched him. Smith like I said the other day is rudimentary as hell. He's got a similar ring IQ to his brothers, only he has the benefit of being huge with a big punch, that's about the only difference. Ryder is next level in terms of skill set, he's the only guy I've ever seen come close to beating Billy Joe Saunders, that's about the only Saunders match that could genuinely go either way. The Blackwell loss was an anomaly, there's a reason he moved up to super middleweight not long after. Every other loss on his record is egregious. The Arnfield loss was so bad even the commentators were shocked and saying he got screwed, the Fielding match didn't look all that dissimilar from the Smith match. It's such a pity the Chris Eubank Jr match didn't go through, Ryder would have destroyed him.

 

The Saunders from the Lemieux match, he doesn't win a second of the fight against. Billy Joe needs to strike while the iron is hot. That would raise his profile for a Canelo match. After he schools the ginger, he can put a fork in GGG. And then retire a Gypsy living legend.

Ryder is a handful for everyone at 168, including Benavidez. He's a good enough counter-puncher and heavy-handed enough that it will make anyone cautious and get them thinking twice, meanwhile John goes to work and starts plugging away, and before they know it he's completely in control.

 

How fighters look after a fight doesn't always line up with who won. I watched this fight live and it was characterized by many close rounds that could have been scored either way. It is this plethora of close rounds that account for differing scores.

 

Yeah, I know, I usually use that defense myself. But it is extra pertinent here, because it backs up my argument, that Ryder's defense was so on point, he barely got touched. Like I said, go back and watch how tight it was, much of what was landing to landing on the gloves.

 

Someone needs to make a HL video of Ryder's defensive skills because he is undoubtedly the slickest gorilla on the planet. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised to find out he had some gypsy blood in him.

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I did enjoy watching him smash up that Clenelo sparring partner Akkaway kid who word on the street is had been beating the living **** out of the ginger Clenbuterol toad in the gym.