Edwin Rodriguez easily beats Don George, but doesn’t look ready for the top fighters

By Boxing News - 03/18/2012 - Comments

Image: Edwin Rodriguez easily beats Don George, but doesn't look ready for the top fightersBy Allan Fox: Undefeated super middleweight contender Edwin Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KO’s) easily defeated the one-dimensional #11 IBF Don George (22-2-1, 19 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Madison Square Garden, New York, New York. Rodriguez, 26, used his jab, movement and combinations to easily beat the slugger George in a fight that was even more one-sided than the scores would suggest. The judges scored the fight as such 99-91, 97-93 and 96-94.

However, as one-sided as the fight was, Rodriguez, #3 IBF, #5 WBC, #8 WBA, #14 WBO, doesn’t look ready to take on the better fighters in the division in my estimation. He lacks power and he’s forced too much to cover up for his lack of power. Rodriguez was quite fortunate last night that his opponent George seemed incapable of throwing more than 20 punches per round. Rodriguez’s job was made easier because George couldn’t pull the trigger on anything until the 10th and final round.

If he had fought the other nine rounds like he did the 10th, he probably would have beaten Rodriguez. The thing is the top super middleweights like Carl Froch, Andre Ward, Mikkel Kessler, Robert Stieglitz, Kelly Pavlik, Arthur Abraham, Andre Dirrell, and Anthony Dirrell have much better offensive skills than Rodriguez. Most of them can move as well as him and have jabs that are similar to his if not better. Rodriguez needs to grow some power somehow before he faces one of those guys because his unbeaten record won’t last long once he faces one of them.

Every round of the with the exception of the 10th was a carbon copy of itself with Rodriguez jabbing constantly, throwing combinations and using a lot of circling of the ring. George, 6’0″, looked like a shorter version of Kelly Pavlik, but one without the ability to throw constant punches like Pavlik. I’m not sure what the problem was for George, because he was able to land when he did let his shots go and he has excellent power and a really good jab. He just wouldn’t throw jabs with any consistency despite having a better jab than Rodriguez and he wasn’t throwing many punches. George, 27. can be a good fighter but probably needs a new trainer and fast if he’s to make something out of his career. George at least has the power to compete with the top fighters at 168 unlike Rodriguez, but the power is useless unless he starts lettings his hands go.



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