By Allan Fox: Steve Kim is reporting that former super middleweight title challenger Edwin Rodriguez (24-1, 16 KOs) is a possibility for the undercard of the October 18th fight card headlined by WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin vs. WBC interim middleweight champion Marco Antonio Rubio.
Rodriguez, one of the more talented fighters in the 168 pound division, hasn’t fought since he lost a 12 round unanimous decision to WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward last November.
Rodriguez gave Ward a really tough fight, but he didn’t have the skills needed to beat him. Rodriguez would have beaten most of the fighters in the division on that might, but Ward was clearly on another level.
“Hearing that there is a chance that Edwin Rodriguez will be part of the Oct 18th card at StubHub Center,” Kim said on his twitter.
Rodriguez was kicking around the idea of moving up to light heavyweight, but he appears to have changed his mind. He’s better suited at super middleweight anyway, because the guys at light heavyweight have a lot of power and/or hand speed.
Rodriguez would have a tough time against the likes of WBC 175 pound champion Adonis Stevenson and WBO champ Sergey Kovalev. He might give problems to IBF/WBA champ Bernard Hopkins or WBA champ Jurgen Braehmer if he could get a fight against either of them, which is unlikely to ever happen.
Rodriguez needs to go after the WBO champion Arthur Abraham or the WBC champ Anthony Dirrell. Those are guys that he’d have a good chance of beating with his skills. Abraham especially is a beatable guy for Rodriguez due to his size and skills advantage over Abraham.
Rodriguez has slipped from the top 15 ranking due to his inactivity, and he’s going to need to get 2-3 quick wins under his belt so that he can get ranked in the top 15 again. What he needs is a win over a solid top 15 contender so that he can get pushed the rankings once again.
Comments are closed.