By Jason Kim: A fairly interesting fight that’s being kicked around in the boxing news is a matchup between WBA World light middleweight champion Austin Trout (24-0, 14 KO’s) and fringe contender Delvin Rodriguez (26-5-3, 14 KO’s) for 2012 some time, according to Steve Kim’s twitter.

Rodriguez, 31, defeated top contender Pawel Wolak by a lopsided 10 round unanimous decision last Saturday night on the undercard of the Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito II fight at Madison Square Garden in New York. Rodriguez looked about the best I’d ever seen him look before in pounding Wolak to the brink of a stoppage in the 10th. Wolak was able to weather the storm but he took an enormous amount of punishment from Rodriguez.

But that said, Rodriguez always looks good against slow, plodding fighters like Wolak, but then struggles when he’s put in against a good boxer like Rafal Jackiewicz and Ashley Theophane. It doesn’t need to be a world beater for Rodriguez to start struggling. All it takes is a fighter that uses a steady jab and Rodriguez is stymied. Austin Trout would be a nightmare for Rodriguez because he knows how to defend, and he’s good power. Moreover, the southpaw Trout has a great jab and moves a lot.

The 5’10” Trout is the opposite of Wolak and he would be a step too far for Rodriguez. I’d like to see it but I guess the winner already. The only negative about Trout is he really hasn’t faced anyone good yet. He beat contender Rigoberto Alvarez by a 12 round unanimous decision last February to capture the vacant WBA title and then has defended it twice against David Lopez and Frank Loporto.

Lopez is a good fighter, and maybe about as good as Rodriguez, but Trout handled him pretty well, beating him by a convincing 12 round unanimous decision. This is Rodriguez’s big opportunity of the fight comes off, but I think he’s not ready for a boxer like Trout. Rodriguez needs another Wolak type opponent for him to do really well.