By Aaron Klein: Lightweight prospect Gamalier Rodriguez (6-1-2, 2 KOs) defeated Mexican fighter Jose Navarrete by a six-round unanimous decision on Thursday night at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The final scores were 59-54, 59-53 and 57-56, for Rodriguez. The 21 year-old Rodriguez, from Puerto Rico, is considered a good, if not raw, prospect in the lightweight division, and has excellent offensive skills.
The problem for Rodriguez, though, is his defense is almost nonexistent at this stage in his career and needs a tremendous amount of work before he’s ready to step it up against 1st tier competition. However, in terms of offensive talent, Rodriguez looked incredibly well polished, much like many of the top fighters in the lightweight division already. The defense or lack there of, is something that Rodriguez had a lot of work cut out for him in the future to work on.
In the 1st round, Rodriguez landed well to the body of Navarrete, hitting him repeatedly during the round. However, his aim was a tad off on several of the occasions, resulting in low blows and a number of warnings from referee Jay Nady. Finally, after receiving four prior warnings for low blows, Nady penalized Rodriguez on his fifth low blow in the round. Though, in fairness to Rodriguez, several of the low blows were actually borderline punches rather than actually low blows.
The round ended up being even, for Rodriguez easily won the round due to his many combinations he landed. Navarrete, for his part, did next to nothing in the round and looked out of his class against Rodriguez.
Rodriguez looked good in the 2nd round, as he landed mostly 1-2 combinations to the head of Navarrete, making it a point of steering clear of throwing punches to the body for fear of being penalized again. Without being able to throw punches to the midsection, Rodriguez looked like a different fighter, and not as comfortable as before. For his part, Navarrete was finding it easy to land right hands to the head of Rodriguez, who would stand directly in front of him after throwing his own shots and wouldn’t bother to block the incoming shots from Navarrete.
Navarrete started off the 4th round landing well with his right hand, tagging Rodriguez repeatedly to the head. It looked as if he might even have been in the process of winning the round when Rodriguez suddenly attacked him late in the round, stunning him with a left hand followed by two rights as the round ended. It showed how fast Rodriguez could change a fight when he wants to, as he looked like a completely different fighter in those remaining seconds compared to how he had fought most of the round. Very skilled and with lightning fast punches that were almost impossible to defense against.
In the 5th round, Rodriguez still showed lack of defense, allowing Navarrete to hit him again and again with right hands to the head. Instead of backing up or trying to lean away from the punches, Rodriguez would either attempt to cover up or just stand there and take the shot flush without even bothering to block the punch. It was especially alarming, because he seemed to have no clue on how to properly block punches or escape from them when being attacked.
In the 6th round, Rodriguez came after Navarrete, hitting him with combinations to the head, backing him up and making him fight off the ropes. It was Rodriguez at his best, as he landed smooth looking combinations and looked like a fighter much older than 21. Navarrete, 27, attempted to fire back his own shots as in the previous rounds, but he was too busy receiving fire and was too busy taking head shots to think of his own offense.