Exclusive Interview with super middleweight contender Edwin Rodriguez

“I want to be able to make a statement my next fight to get a guy like Kelly Pavlik, or Arthur Abraham, or one of those big names” – Edwin Rodriguez

Exclusive Interview by Geoffrey Ciani – I was recently afforded the opportunity to speak with undefeated super middleweight contender Edwin Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KOs) who is preparing to square off against fellow undefeated fighter Jason Escalara (13-0-1, 12 KOs) on September 29 in a bout that will be televised by HBO. Rodriguez spoke about his upcoming fight and shared his views on his opponent. He also provided opinions on a variety of topics, including the chemistry he shares with head trainer Ronnie Shields, Andre Ward’s impressive victory against Chad Dawson last weekend, his idea on what it would take to beat someone of Ward’s caliber, and more! Here is a complete transcript from that interview.

Audio:

GEOFFREY CIANI: Hello boxing fans. This is Geoffrey Ciani from East Side Boxing and I’m here with super middleweight contender Edwin Rodriguez. How’s everything going, Edwin?

EDWIN RODRIGUEZ: Everything is great. I’m here in Houston, Texas with Ronnie Shields having a great training camp.

CIANI: Great! Now you have a big fight coming up September 29 against Jason Escalara. You said the training camp is going great. So you’re confident in your preparations for this fight thus far?

RODRIGUEZ: Yes sir, extremely confident. Me and Ronnie had a really good training camp where we were able to sit down and learn a few things, and just get a really good game plan for this next fight. We’ve had really good sparring partners. I’ve been working with Cornelius White, who’s top ten in the world at 175, and Don Mouton and me did ten rounds on Tuesday, and I feel great.

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Ahmed Kaddour Interview

After his action-packed Nordic Fight Night debut in Herning on June 2, Ahmed Kaddour (25-2-1, 10 KOs) will make another appearance on Team Sauerland´s show on September 22, taking on Max Maxwell (15-11-3, 3 KOs) at Frederikshavn´s Arena Nord. Having learned all about German discipline, timeliness and strictness at Team Sauerland´s training base in Berlin, Kaddour has predicted to stop his opponent in less than five rounds.

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Angel Garcia: Erik Morales will be down on his knees by the 5th against Danny Garcia

By Rob Smith: Angel Garcia, the father and trainer for WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (24-0, 15 KO’s), believes that Danny can take out the aging 36-year-old former four division world champion Erik Morales (52-8, 36 KO’s) when they fight on October 20th at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York.

Angel said to RingTV “Danny needs to go out there and to to the body and start hitting him hard. He needs to go downstairs early and then, by the 5th, Erik Morales should be down on his knees.”

I’m not sure that the 24-year-old Garcia has enough power or the offensive skills to stop Morales. It’s not that Morales is someone that is unstoppable because we’ve seen him get taken out by Manny Pacquiao on a couple of occasions in the past. However, Garcia doesn’t put his punches together the same way Pacquiao does, and he doesn’t really go after his opponents in a sustained enough manner to take them out.

The only time Garcia seems to go after an opponent is when he’s got one of them hurt, like he did in his last fight against Amir Khan last July. Garcia did an excellent job of finishing off Khan after knocking him down late in the 3rd round from a left hook to the neck. Khan made it easy for Garcia by trying to slug with him early in the 4th, resulting in Garcia chopping him down.

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Is Maravilla taking his fight against Chavez Jr. too seriously?

By Robert Jackson: Yesterday, I wrote a piece asking the question as to whether Julio Cesar Chavez Jr was just putting on an act for the cameras which showed him ‘slacking off’ while training for his September 15th fight against Sergio Martinez. HBO’s 24/7 docudrama featured Chavez Jr. deliberately missing scheduled training sessions, sleeping in, and not training at all in one case. In fact Chavez Jr’s body didn’t look as toned as it could be to engage in an upcoming professional fight.

To Chavez Jr’s credit his 7 day weigh-in had him weighing the same 167lbs as Sergio Martinez weighed in at. For a much bigger, heavier man that says that Chavez Jr IS preparing but playing mind games with us all.

All the while Chavez Jr was supposedly missing training sessions, Sergio Martinez was shown training like a machine with the intention as he put it to make Chavez Jr. “regret taking the fight”. Martinez was shown resting in a hyperbaric chamber to increase his blood-oxygen uptake. Maravilla has been shown executing different drills, conditioning, sparring and bag work to get him ready for battle. A lot of discipline and seriousness has been exercised on the Martinez side of things to be ready on fight night. Maybe a little too serious?

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Ricky Hatton’s comeback likely for November 24th

By Michael Collins: Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) is expected to be making his comeback on November 24th at the MEN Arena, according to the Manchester Evening News. There’s talk of Hatton having met with the British Boxing Board of Control to get licensed to fight. Hatton additionally has lot a lot of weight and this has further fueled speculation that the 33-year-old Hatton will soon be back in the ring. Hatton will be making an announcement this Friday about his plans for the November 24th fight.

His fighters Anthony Crolla, Martin Murray, Rendall Munroe and Scott Quigg will be on the November 24th card.

If Hatton does make a comeback on November 24th he’ll likely be matched against a less than dangerous opponent. It’s been three years since he last fought, and he was knocked out in only two rounds in his last fight against Manny Pacquiao. Hatton needs to take things slowly if he wants to find success with his comeback. His chin might not be the same, and we could see Hatton knockout out again if he faces someone too good for him.

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Chavez Jr-Martinez: Dont Cry For Me Argentina

By PADRE – Who needs Mayweather and Pacman, when the boxing fans have been spoiled as of late, with various intriguing matchups. Another blockbuster one is coming up this Saturday when Sergio Martinez takes on Julio Chavez Jr. I will cut to the chase and spare you all the scenarios and say that I pick Sergio Martinez to beat Junior decisively. Sergio is a better boxer with great foot work , power and a fighters IQ that outclasses Junior. I honestly think we may be seeing a repeat of Pacman vs Margarito. I just hope that this time someone in Junior’s corner has the sense and decency to stop the onslaught and remember that he still has a future in boxing, if he doesn’t take a battering. We all see that Margarito never recovered from that beating and ended up retiring. There is only one caveat, only one major issue that I see that may cost Sergio the fight. It’s not Juniors size, which I think will actually be a disadvantage if he comes in heavy as Sergio is a nimble fighter, nor is it Juniors chin which is very good but if you chip away at any chin, it eventually crumbles. Nor is it the punching power of Junior as he wings wide shots and Sergio shoots short crisp shots down the pocket and will do so all night. No, it’s the utter disdain that Sergio has for Junior.

Anyone that has seen 24/7, the various press conferences or meetings these two have had in public has seen the disdain which Sergio has for Junior. He honestly doesn’t like this kid at all. I have seen fighters that didn’t like their opponents and it doesn’t hurt to build up some fire towards your opponent before a fight, but there is real animosity coming from Sergio towards Junior. He feels that this kid was handed the green belt, which I agree with. That he was protected and may have lifted to higher heights, not based on his efforts but because of his last name. He wants to show this kid a lesson and punish him. He has actually said he didn’t think he could win a decision against Chavez no matter what he did, so he will need to know him out and there lies the danger.

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Dawson Outclassed

By Emilio Camacho Esq. – As I predicted, Andre Ward outclassed Chad Dawson; however, there was several misses in my prediction.

First, I predicted that the first round would be uneventful and that Ward would win it. Although round 1 was indeed uneventful, surprisingly, Dawson looked sharp and strong thereby winning the round (at least in my view). Hence, I was only partially correct in my thoughts.

Second, I predicted that Dawson would win rounds 2 – 4. I was wrong. In rounds two and three, Ward unveiled his left hook droping Dawson to the canvas. Dawson had no hope after that and you could see it on his face. This is when we get to what I was talking about and the main argument of my previous article.

First, I stated that Ward would show us something we had not seen before and he did just that. Ward made the guy who defeated Tarver, Johnson, Hopkins, and Adamek, among others, quit in round ten after dropping him again. Dawson said he was “done.” In reality, almost no one expected a stoppage. I did not think the stoppage would come but I did think that Ward would be stronger and would show it in an extraordinary way. Well, he did.

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Chavez Jr…is this an act?

by Robert Jackson: HBO’s 24/7 series has for some time now been the MARKETING arm of its boxing empire, first seen prior to the Mayweather/De La Hoya fight and subsequently showcasing Pacquiao, Cotto and others , this series has no equal.

Currently the 2 episode Chavez/Martinez 24/7 is being shown and the contrast between the 2 fighters cannot be more disparate. Chavez Jr as shown, seems to be blowing this fight off, not taking it seriously and not preparing himself adequately. Martinez on the other hand is ‘all business’, can be seen preparing scientifically, working meticulously and not taking anything for granted.

The 2nd and final episode shown this past Saturday showed Chavez Jr skipping workouts with Freddie Roach, while also ignoring his father’s advise on tactics for fighting Martinez to instead take a dip in the pool of his rented house. Chavez Jr was also shown running at 2 o’clock in the morning and also sleeping all day, behavior totally unlike his nemesis who trains in the traditional manner getting up early in the morning to run after a good nights sleep.

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Ward vs Dawson: It was the WEIGHT!

by Robert Jackson: Well actually it wasn’t…totally, but as Miguel Cotto famously said following his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. “I tried to hit him, but I couldn’t”; Chad Dawson was also heard saying afterwards “he’s a lot faster and a lot stronger than I thought”. Also uttered by the 175lb champion were the buzzwords “I couldn’t get off tonight”; words usually associated with overtraining, making weight or the old boxing adage of a fighter having ‘left his fight in the gym’. Similar post-fight sentiments were put forth by Carl Froch after the Super 6 final where Ward unceremoniously, outfought and outhustled the British fighter to win the tournament. Froch had minimized Ward’s punching power and boxing ability prefight.

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Ward-Dawson: Andre Ward cements his place as a modern great

By Peter Wells: Maybe it’s about time we stopped the Mayweather, Pacquiao, who’s the best in the world argument. Andre Ward may just have trumped them both with another completely dominate display. Ward has already cleared out the Super Middleweight division, and Chad Dawson the best Light Heavyweight in the world, and a top 10 pound-for-pound fighter himself didn’t even come close to ending Ward’s unbeaten run that’s stretches back to when he was 12. When you look at Mayweather’s and Manny’s fights the last few years, they haven’t won each fight as clearly as Ward has. Andre has fought the best in his division and the best fighter in the division above, Mayweather and Pacquiao haven’t fought one another meaning they haven’t fought the best in their division.

Enough of that, this isn’t an article to argue who is the best in the world. Last night was Ward’s night as he was simply awesome in dominating the ultra talented WBC Light Heavyweight champion. In the build up many worried if Dawson could make the weight well, but looked good at the weigh in and weighed almost 10lbs heavier than Ward on fight night. Dawson enjoys fighting at his own pace, using his jab to control rounds. ‘S.O.G’ took away Dawson’s jab from the very start and after a slow first upped the pace to suit himself.

Ward’s footwork is something to admire. Any youngster starting boxing should definitely watch the way Ward uses his feet to set himself up to land shots and avoid shots coming back. Ward is also a great thinker and may well have won this fight using his brain, seeing shots that others wouldn’t notice if they stood their for 5 minutes let alone in a split second.

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