By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten heavyweight hopeful David Rodriguez (35-0, 33 KO’s) kept his unbeaten record intact with a crushing 3rd round KO of 35-year-old Owen Beck (29-8, 20 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Don Haskins Convention Center, in El Paso, Texas.

The 6’4″ Rodriguez knocked Beck out cold with a left hook to the head in the third. The punch left Beck down for a considerable amount of time on the canvas. The official time of the stoppage was 2:03 of the 3rd. For Beck, this was his 5th consecutive knockout loss.

Rodriguez looked okay in the 1st and 2nd rounds, throwing some heavy body shots but not looking fast of hand or foot. His hand speed was very average and his right hand wasn’t nearly as good as his left hook. Never the less, Beck was over-matched and spent most of the time taking shots from the plodding Rodriguez. Beck did have his moments and landed some fairly decent shots but he wasn’t able to throw enough to make the fight a competitive one.

As for Rodriguez, he really, really needs to start stepping it up against 1st tier opponents. Rodriguez has built a nice record on 2nd and 3rd tier opposition but at 30-years-old it’s high time that he at least face one top tier guy, even if it’s a bottom feeder. It would be sad if Rodriguez’s entire career is limited to B level fighters. At 30, he needs to step it and see how he’ll do against the world class fighters. We see that Rodriguez can beat a journeyman level guy like Beck, but how about a fringe contender like Kevin Johnson, Chris Arreola, Samuel Peter or Bermane Stiverne? I have my doubts that Rodriguez would beat any of them.