When Daniel Geale was preparing for Roman Karmazin, he was there. When Carl Froch needed sparring before his bout with Arthur Abraham, he was there. When Jean Pascal was looking for help getting ready for Chad Dawson, he was there – and when Dawson was getting ready for Bernard Hopkins, he was there.
Edwin “La Bomba†Rodriguez (19-0, 14 KO) has been around the world helping some of the biggest names in boxing prepare for their most important bouts. Geale, Froch, Pascal and Dawson all have something else in common other than their use of Rodriguez as a sparring partner – they were all victorious in the subsequent bout (wink, wink, nudge, nudge – amiright Dawson fans?).
An interesting thing happened to Edwin Rodriguez while he was busy preparing contenders for world title bouts – he became a world title contender himself. Rodriguez is currently ranked in the Top 12 by every major sanctioned organization, and at least in theory holds the WBC USNBC super middleweight championship (following his 9th round TKO of James McGirt Jr.).
Rodriguez now finds himself in a difficult position. His world ranking puts him in contention for any of the “major†sanctioning body world championships, but his reputation makes him an unlikely opponent for any of the top money fighters in the super middleweight division. Since January 2010 Rodriguez has knocked out George Armenta, Kevin Engel, Ibraheim King and Chris Traietti with body shots, combined record 47-12 at the time Rodriguez fought them. During that period he also knocked out James McGirt Jr., in the 9th round, and defeated recent world title contender Aaron Pryor Jr., via unanimous decision on ESPN2 “Friday Night Fights†from Key West, Florida in a fight that Rodriguez fought mostly one handed. Add McGirt Jr., and Pryor to the mix and Rodriguez is 6-0, 5 KO over opposition with a combined record of 84-16-1 in the past 22 months.
It is with that backstory that we approach this Friday night, when Rodriguez will step into the ring in the main event of ShoBox to put his undefeated record on the line against fellow undefeated prospect Will “Power†Rosinsky (14-0, 8 KO).
Rosinsky is likely in over his head on Friday night; let’s just get that out of the way at the start. Only three of his 14 wins have come against fighters with a winning record, and none of his 8 KO’s came in those three wins. Comparing him to Rodriguez at this point in their respective careers, I’d say that Rosinsky is where Rodriguez was, at the start of 2010 – and we’ve already talked about how “La Bomba†progressed his career over the course of these last almost two years. Rosinsky has skipped that portion of the program, and has jumped straight from the frying pan, into the fire.
That’s not to say that Rosinsky isn’t a fighter with some cache. His amateur pedigree is tough to argue with, he’s a 4x New York Golden Gloves champion and a former U.S. National Amateur Champion (at light heavyweight). He is familiar with Rodriguez, the two actually shared a room during an amateur tournament in the past, and unlike almost every other “top tier†(meaning in my mind Top 25) super middleweight in the world, Rosinsky was willing to fight Rodriguez, which gains him some points in my book.
However, there are some distressing signs leading into this fight for Rosinsky. I’ve already mentioned that his 8 knockouts are a big suspicious as none of them came against a fighter with a winning record, meanwhile Rodriguez has had 7 of his 14 knockouts come against fighters with winning records, and he hasn’t even fought someone with a losing record since 2008 (4th round TKO over Anthony Cannon). Another cause for concern for those in the Rosinsky fold has to be that in his last fight (against Jose Ramirez who was 11-11 at the time), Rosinsky was knocked down in the first round, that fight was at 172 pounds which is where the Rodriguez/Rosinsky bout will be held on Friday night (a catchweight between the super middleweight Rodriguez and the light heavyweight Rosinsky).
All of the warning signs aside; this fight should be an entertaining bout. Rosinsky is a come forward, throw punches, offensive style fighter – Rodriguez is an all action fighter who recently began working with Hall of Fame trainer Ronnie Shields (this will be their second fight together). As far as ShoBox main events are concerned, two fighters with a combined 33-0 record with 22 combined knockouts is a can’t miss proposition.
As someone who will be ringside covering the event, I can also say with some level of certainty that the show itself from top to bottom looks to be a solid card. New England prospects will line up most of the night including Olympic alternate Danny O’Connor, who will also be making his second fight under the tutelage of Ronnie Shields, and Ryan “The Polish Prince†Kielczewski (11-0, 2 KO) who my wife has a crush on. The non-televised card will also feature Luis Rosa, Badou Jack, Jonathan Cepeda, and Dyah Davis – and the co-feature on the televised portion of ShoBox will feature Gabriel “Tito†Bracero and Daniel Sostre fighting for the vacant NABF light welterweight title.
If you’re interesting in following all the action don’t forget to hit up my twitter account @JRoche3MR.
NEW ENGLAND BOXING ROUND-UP:
-        Belated news from Chicago where “Irish†Joey McCreedy (13-5-1, 6KO) and Sean Eklund were both victorious on October 7th. McCreedy won an 8 round unanimous decision over Loren Meyers for his second straight decision victory, while Eklund won a unanimous decision over Terry Buterbaugh in a fight where Eklund injured his hand. I know Sean has made at least two trips to the Lahey Clinic where he will be treated for his hand injury. Here’s hoping for a swift recovery for Sean.
-        Both Eklund and McCreedy are trained by Sean’s uncle Dicky Eklund and where Dicky goes, Micky Ward goes.
-        Jimmy Burchfield’s Classic Entertainment & Sports Inc., has announced their next show will be on November 5th at Mohegan Sun and will feature heavyweight prospect Mariusz Wach and former world title challenger Elvin Ayala. This will be a great night as Wach really turns heads and currently holds my award for best knockout of the year with his KO victory over Kevin McBride.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Also rumored to be appearing on that November 5th CES show will be former three time world champion Jose Antonio Rivera who continues his comeback.
-        Finally, I guess it’s officially, official that Peter Manfredo Jr., the Pride of Providence will step into the ring on November 11th against WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., at Reliant Stadium in Houston. I talked about this fight at length last week on 3 More Rounds podcast, but I will reiterate that I truly believe that Manfredo Jr., can win that fight – though I’m not expecting him to be able to win a decision in Houston.
