By Scott Gilfoid: It pained me to see former EBU junior middleweight champion Ryan Rhodes (46-6, 31 KO’s) getting blasted out by the youngster Sergey Rabchenko (21-0, 16 KO’s) in the 7th round last Saturday night at the Velodrome, in Manchester, UK.

Rhodes, 35, showed his age in getting leveled by a powerful body shot from the hard-hitting Rabchenko in the 7th.

The loss by Rhodes has his career in tatters unfortunately. He’s lost two out of his last three fights, and if he can’t even beat a European level fighter like Rabchenko then it doesn’t bode well for Rhodes to continue to hang around hoping things will get better. I don’t see how they can. Rhodes is too long in the tooth, and short on power for him to still find success. This isn’t Bernard Hopkins we’re talking about. Rhodes isn’t a great inside fighter, and as we saw in his losses to Rabchenko and Alvarez, Rhodes tends to fight in a safety first – read: survival oriented – manner when he gets hit hard. There are a ton of fighters in the junior middleweight division with talent and power along the same lines as Rabchenko, and I can’t see Rhodes ever being able beat these guys. Can you imagine throwing Rhodes in with Erislandy Lara, James Kirkland, Sergiy Dziziruk, or Alfredo Angulo?

My advice would be for Rhodes to hang up the gloves and find another line of work. He doesn’t need to hand around just soaking up punishment from younger fighters and ending up like a punching bag. He needs to let the younger, more talented fighters have their way while he relaxes in retirement.