However, the undisputed super middleweight king didn't have any trouble in delivering a wide unanimous decision victory over a gritty John Ryder on Saturday night, live on DAZN. Judges at the Estadio Akron in his native Guadalajara, Mexico scored it 120-107, 118-109 and 118-109 all in Alvarez's favor as he never looked back from opening up a faucet of blood from Ryder's nose in the third round and dropping the Brit with a straight left-right combination in the fifth.

Fighting in his first fight in Mexico in over 11 years, Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) didn't finish his mandatory challenger, but didn't run into any problems with his tough opponent, either.

"I'm happy with the fight," Alvarez told DAZN's Chris Mannix after the victory.

He added: "(Ryder's) a strong fighter. I know that, but I'm not surprised about it."

After Ryder survived the fifth round, Alvarez threatened a stoppage a few more times, though his British opponent showed plenty of heart — not to mention a solid chin and penchant for just enough timely, pesky counters to go the distance. 

Following the victory, Alvarez told Mannix that he didn't have trouble with his left hand that he had surgery on roughly five months ago. He maintained that his next goal is to clash with WBA light heavyweight world champion Dmitry Bivol in a rematch. Bivol scored a unanimous decision win over Alvarez in May 2022.

Here's how the entire Alvarez vs. Ryder pay-per-view main card went.