Edwin Rodriguez plans on keeping Andre Ward guessing this Saturday

By Boxing News - 11/10/2013 - Comments

rodriguez432By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten Edwin Rodriguez (24-0, 16 KO’s) feels his five inch reach advantage over Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) this Saturday night will give him fits when they face each other at the Citizens Business Bank Arena, in Ontario, California, USA. Ward usually has the longer reach for his fights, but this is one of the rare times where he’ll be giving up some reach to an opponent.

Rodriguez, 28, is going to need more than reach if he wants to win this fight because he’s a clear underdog going into this fight. It’s not that he doesn’t have the reach. The problem for Rodriguez is he throws a lot of wide looping shots that takes away his reach completely, and that’s not going to fly against Ward if he tries to fight like that. It might was work against guys like Denis Grachev, Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna and Will Rosinsky, but it’s not going to be effective against a talent like Ward.

“This guy is so smart,” Rodriguez said to Telegram.com. “I’ll have to use a lot of different things. At some point, he’s going to adapt to my reach. I’ve just to stay ahead of him.”

I think it’ll take exactly one round for Ward to adapt to Rodriguez’s reach, so I hope he has some other ideas in his toolbox because if that’s all he’s got then he’s going to be getting embarrassed on Saturday night. Ward doesn’t let anyone use their reach on him. We saw what Ward did to Chad Dawson last year in September. Dawson’s reach is just as long as Rodriguez’s, yet Ward was able to get in close each time without getting hit with anything big. Carl Froch is another fighter with reach the same as Rodriguez’s, and Ward ended up clowning Froch for 12 rounds. In fact, it was Ward who was doing the better jabbing in that fight rather than Froch surprisingly.

Rodriguez’s trainer Ronnie Shields thinks that Rodriguez would beat all the guys that Ward has fought in the past. He said “Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler, Sakio Bika – I think Edwin beats them all. That is a fight Edwin can win.”

I see Edwin more as a sparring partner than I do an actual top five contender. I really don’t rate this guy at all. He’s too sloppy, too wide with his shots, and too weak in the power department. This is going to be one of Ward’s easiest fights in a long while, and no, I don’t believe Rodriguez could hang with Kessler, Bika or Froch. Heck, I don’t think Rodriguez could hang with the likes of James DeGale. Rodriguez is too flawed, and those flaws are going to be exposed to the light by Ward on Saturday night. Ward will expose Rodriguez as a fighter with an inflated record and limited talent. I just hope that Ward doesn’t take him out too quickly because I want this fight to at least go into the late rounds so that fans can see some action.



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