![]() From the very beginning, I have to show him that I am better and I have to keep him out of his comfort zone.” I will have to show him that I am not one of those other 19 guys he’s fought before. “He is unbeaten and has that mentality of not knowing how to lose, and I will have to teach him that. “ He’s undefeated in 19 fights, but he hasn’t fought the kind of fighters I’ve faced,” said Rodriguez about his next opponent. It is a strong division and with very good fighters, and my style fits right in there to make great fights.”īut before he reaches that stage, Rodriguez needs to succeed where 19 other fighters have failed. ![]() And all I want is an opportunity to show them that I am up there. Guys like Pascal and all of them, they won’t fight me. All I need is for those fighters to face me. I believe I am at the elite level already. “What they say is that, ‘Oh, he lost to Ward, and now there is not enough reward for me in fighting him, there’s too much risk.’ And it is becoming difficult for me to get the big fights, to get everyone to see me as a contender with ambition and potential to become a world champion. “ I am not in the conversation because none of them want to fight me,” said Rodriguez. But Rodriguez feels that’s about to change. In spite of having only one loss – against a fighter widely considered as a Top 5 pound-for-pound entrant – Rodriguez, who fights out of Worcester, Massachusetts, is not usually mentioned in the same breath as the top dogs in his weight class, an elite group featuring names such as Sergey Kovalev, Jean Pascal, Adonis Stevenson and many more. He had just gone 12 rounds with Luci a n Bute in a close fight, and I felt on top of the world back then.” “First I defeated (Ezequiel) Maderna in the first stage of that tournament, and he was an Olympic fighter, and in the final fight I knocked out (Denis) Grachev in the first round. “ I felt great,” said Rodriguez about outcome of that tournament. Rodriguez’s loss was particularly painful because he was coming off his peak as a fighter in back-to-back victories in Monaco as part of the “Million Dollar Tournament” in mid-2013. ![]() Now I have to do my job and win to get new opportunities.” He was a great fighter and did what he had to do. “ Yeah, after four rounds my energy just wasn’t there. Rodriguez blames his lackluster performance on the additional effort he needed to make weight for that particular bout. ![]() If I beat an unbeaten fighter like Michael Seals I will have the opportunity to fight (Adonis) Stevenson for the world title.” And it’s on me to crawl out of that hole and this is one of those fights in which I can achieve that. And even though I wasn’t at my very best, I got into that problem myself. “ On that night I can’t make any excuses,” said Rodriguez in a telephone interview about his loss and quite likely his worst performance ever as a prizefighter. But after a 3-0 run in two years as a full-fledged light heavyweight, Rodriguez (27-1, 18 knockouts) said he’s ready to claim his place among the elite in his new division, and he will take his first step this Friday when he faces Michael Seals (19-0, 14 KOs) at Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, in a 10-round main event on Spike TV. The Dominican-born fighter was coming off a terrific unbeaten run when he decided to push his luck on the scales one more time to have a shot at Andre Ward’s super middleweight title and ended up suffering a career-shattering loss in 2013. The inherent health dangers of fighting a 12-round bout without the necessary energy to both withstand and inflict punishment is oftentimes underestimated by fighters who believe that the prize is worth the stretch.Įdwin Rodriguez is a perfect example. Photo by Red Saxon/Associated Pressįew things in boxing are riskier than a fighter overstaying his welcome at a particular weight class. Edwin Rodriguez (L) in one of the few moments of success he had against Andre Ward in 2013.
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