By Jason Kim: This Saturday night, unbeaten super middleweight contender Edwin Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KO’s) will be facing undefeated Jason Escalera (13-0-1, 12 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, United States. Rodriguez, 27, will be defending his USBA super middleweight title in what he hopes will be an easy fight against the hard hitting Escalera.

On the undercard will be former two division world champion Vic Darchinyan (37-5-1, 27 KO’s) who will be hoping to end his two fight losing streak against unbeaten #7 WBA, #10 IBF, #11 WBO, #12 WBC Luis Orlando Del Valle (16-0, 11 KO’s) in a fight for the vacant NABF super bantamweight title.

Darchinyan has lost his last two bouts against Anselmo Moreno and Shinsuke Yamanaka at bantamweight. But now Darchinyan is moving up to super bantamweight despite the fact that he already proved that he’s struggling at bantamweight. Darchinyan was nearly unbeatable at super flyweight and flyweight. It would seem logical that he move back down to those weights rather than taking on larger fighters that he can’t dominate like he did at the lower weights.

Moving up in weight to super bantamweight to face the young Puerto Rican slugger Del Valle seems like a recipe for disaster for Darchinyan. It’s possible that he wins the fight, because Del Valle has little experience against quality opposition, but if Darchinyan isn’t able to hurt this guy with any of his power shots then he could find himself losing for the third straight time. If that happens then Darchinyan will have to make a decision whether to stick it out with the course he’s on or move back down to at leas super flyweight to see if he can resume his once successful career.

Rodriguez is looking to get a title shot against one of the super middleweight champions. However, he needs a big win over a well known contender to speed up a title shot opportunity. Rodriguez has beaten the likes of Don George, Will Rosinsky, Aaron Pryor Jr., James McGirt and Darnell Boone.

Also on the card will be welterweight Antonin Decarie facing Alex Perez.