John Ryder has decided to retire from professional boxing barely a week after his January 27th fight against Jaime Munguia. As of today, the southpaw fighter has put an end to a fourteen-year career that has seen him challenge for a world title several times, and saw him fight an array of elite fighters including Canelo Alvarez, Callum Smith and Daniel Jacobs.
Though he never became a prolific amateur competitor, John Ryder (32-7, 18 KO’s), nicknamed “The Gorilla”, accumulated a reported record of 30-5 during his time as an amateur where he was able to win the ABA National senior novice championships twice. In 2010, Ryder became a professional and delivered on his debut at middleweight with a stoppage victory over Iranian journeyman Ben Deghani.
From that point onward, Ryder steadily progressed as a middleweight contender, eventually working himself up to face future world champion Billy Joe Saunders for the BBBofC British and Commonwealth middleweight titles in 2013. Despite suffering a unanimous decision loss, Ryder put up a commendable effort in a match that he was only two or three rounds away from winning.
The Islington-born fighter went on to prove his worth as a fighter in the aftermath of his first career loss to Saunders, and soon found himself become a fringe contender at middleweight as he captured the WBO inter-continental title in 2014. A year later, Ryder faced British talent Nick Blackwell for another significant fight for the BBBofC British title, but ended up being stopped in the seventh round of their bout.
Much like his come-forward style he would become known for, Ryder continued to fight on with unfettered determination. A third loss to Jack Arnfield in 2016 spurred John Ryder to make the decision to move up to super middleweight where he managed to capture the IBF International title in 2017 before facing Rocky Fielding in a classic British match-up for the BBBofC British super middleweight title.
Though Ryder only narrowly lost to Fielding by split-decision, he resumed his career and managed to become the WBA interim super middleweight champion in 2019 after stopping opponent Bilal Akkawy. As an interim champion, he received the opportunity to face WBA super middleweight champion Callum Smith (29-2, 12 KO’s) where he suffered his fifth career loss.
Ever undeterred following his first loss in a world title fight, John Ryder toiled to become a contender once more and came within reach of another title opportunity when he defeated fellow Brit Zach Parker (23-1, 17 KO’s) in 2022 to become the WBO interim champion at 168 lbs in 2022. A match against the undisputed super middleweight champion of the division, Canelo Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KO’s), followed not long after in 2023, and despite losing for the sixth time of his career, Ryder put up tremendous resistance against the Mexican champion.
His last match was against Jaime Munguia (43-0, 34 KO’s) this year where he suffered his seventh loss and just his second by way stoppage or knockout. Recalling both his past victories and defeats, Ryder substantiated on his decision to retire at the age of 35 in an emotional post-retirement statement:
“It is with a heavy heart that I have come to the decision to hang up my gloves and retire from professional boxing,” Ryder’s statement read.
“Although I did not manage to win that world title, I’ve achieved and experienced more than I could ever have imagined when I first put on a pair of boxing gloves―and I wouldn’t change that for any belt.
“Although my professional career as a boxer is now over, the sport won’t be able to get rid of me that easily and I look forward to officially starting my new career as a coach working alongside Tony (Sims) at the Matchroom Gym very shortly. There’s no place like home. Thanks again, John ‘The Gorilla’ Ryder.“
With John Ryder having promised to return as a coach alongside his own former longtime coach Tony Sims―who trained Ryder for over a decade, Ryder may soon grace the boxing scene again in a new role, and undoubtedly seek to transfer his knowledge and experience into developing the next generation of boxers.
