Andre Ward to face Edwin Rodriguez on November 16th

By Scott Gilfoid: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) will make his long awaited return to the ring on November 16th against unbeaten Edwin Rodriguez (24-0 16 KO’s) in a fight that will be televised by HBO from the Citizens Business Bank Arena, in Ontario, California, USA.

The promoters for Ward and Rodriguez have gone around in circles in putting this fight together, but they finally were able to iron out a deal to stage the fight.

This isn’t the fight that Ward wanted because he’s coming off of shoulder surgery and he was hoping to get an easier bout against the likes of Stanyslav Kastanov or Dimitri Sartison, but HBO wanted Rodriguez because it would mean better ratings. At the end of the day it probably won’t mean that much of a difference because Rodriguez won’t stand a chance against Ward. Rodriguez is too sloppy with his fighting style to have any chance of winning this fight.

Ward is hoping that after he whips Rodriguez that he can get a big fight against the like of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. He’d also like to fight Mikkel Kessler and Carl Froch again, but the chances of either of those two ever agreeing to face Ward again are slim and none. They tasted defeat against Ward in the Super Six tournament and neither of them appear to be eager to get whipped again.

Rodriguez, 28, recently won the Monaco Million Dollar Super Four Tournament in beating Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna and Denis Grachev, but the competition was weak and Rodriguez looked sloppy in winning those fights, especially against Grachev.

That was some of the ugliest fighting I’ve seen. Rodriguez was throwing looping punches that left his head wide open for straight punches, but Grachev didn’t have the talent or the sense to realize that he could have knocked Rodriguez out with straight punches to the head. Believe me, if Rodriguez tries his looping punches against Ward then he’s going to get beaten to a pulp. I mean, Rodriguez is going to get beaten up anyway, but it’ll be much quicker if he tries to throw his usual looping punches.