By Manuel Perez: Making only his fourth fight in the past 10 years, former undefeated welterweight Troy Browning (20-1-1, 8 KOs) was no match for the young 27 year-old Delvin Rodriguez (22-2-1, 13 KOs), who easily beat him by a 10-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Mohegan Sun Casino, in Uncasville, Connecticut. It was a case of too much youth on the part of Rodriguez, for the 41 year-old Browning to deal with. Though he gave a good try, coming back in the later rounds to apply a lot of pressure and land effectively, but in the end Browning didn’t have the firepower with which to match the hard-hitting Rodriguez. The final judges scores were 100-90, 100-90 and 99-91.
Browning, ranked #13 in the WBO super middleweight division, had problems all fight long dealing with Rodriguez’s height and reach advantage. Though Rodriguez was only three inches taller than the 5’8″ Browning, Rodriguez’s reach was quite a bit longer than his, allowing him to control the fight at a distance without having to face Browning’s withering fire.
Rodriguez, a fighter that at one time was considered to be a possible future welterweight champion, was shockingly stopped in the 8th round by Jesse Feliciano in March 2007, a fight where Rodriguez was handily leading up until the stoppage occurred in the 8th. Since then, Rodriguez has been trying to rebuild his career. and Browning, as it turns out, was the perfect opponent for which Rodriguez could look good against.
Rodriguez came out firing away with right hands in the first round, showing excellent power, as he constantly landed well to the head of Browning. If he thought he had any chance at winning the fight, Browning was immediately exposed in the first round as not having nearly as much skills as Rodriguez. It was like target practice for Rodriguez, for he was able to hit Browning repeatedly with good right hands. However, if there’s any criticism of his offensive skills, however, it’s the fact that he fails to throw combinations, preferring to load up with his right hand.
In the third and fourth rounds, Rodriguez landed some beautiful right hand shots against the southpaw Browning. For his part, Browning took the shots well, and occasionally fired back with left hands of his own. However, Browning didn’t let his hands go early in the fight, which led to him quickly falling behind.
Browning landed a big left hand shot in the fifth, and I thought for a second that Rodriguez would go down like he did against Feliciano. He took the shot, though. However, I got the feeling that if Browning had been able to land his left hand with a little more frequency, he would have possibly stopped Rodriguez, especially when the fight got into the later rounds.
In rounds eight through ten, Rodriguez’s pace slowed down considerably, though he was still landing a high number of shots to the head and midsection, but he was getting hit a lot more now by Browning. When he could get Rodriguez up against the ropes, Browning was able to land with some effective right hand shots to the head. I’m not sure why Rodriguez would let himself be backed up to the ropes, other than he was growing tired and probably wanted a little rest, but it didn’t help him any. I had Rodriguez winning the last four rounds quite easily, but he looked a little tired and vulnerable during this time, but not something Browning, with his marginal power, could take advantage of.
In the end, Rodriguez had simply too much power for Browning, and nothing short of a miracle would have changed the outcome. Rodriguez, though, needs to work a lot on his offense, because when he finally steps it up against a talented welterweight, he may find himself being knocked out once again.