23.12.07 – By Jeff Bastasini: Last night, heavyweight David Rodriguez (27-0, 25 KOs) won an 8-round unanimous decision over Marcus McGee (19-15, 9 KOs) at the Dickerson’s Event Center, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The bout turned out to be highly competitive despite the vast differences the two fighter’s records, perhaps showing that Rodriguez isn’t yet ready to step it up against better fighters in the heavyweight division. The final judges’ scores were 77-75, 77-75 and 79-73. Rodriguez, 30, was badly hurt in the 8th round by McGee, who had him on the verge of a knockout. However, McGee let the chance slip by after missing with several shots as the round ended.
In the early rounds of the fight, the lumbering Rodriguez slowly stalked McGee, throwing hard right hands and left hooks, and catching McGee often. However, Rodriguez’s punches had little effect on McGee, whom has faced quite a number of skilled heavyweights in his career, such as Odlanier Solis Fonte, Malik Scott, TJ Wilson, Vladimir Virchis and Jameel McCline, just to name a few. On the other hand, McGee’s punches appeared to be really effecting Rodriguez, as both of his eyes were soon blackened from the constant right hands and jabs from McGee.
Rodriguez showed little in the way of defense, mostly using his face to stop McGee’s shots. Rodriguez’s stamina also was quite poor, as he was gasping for breath by the 2nd round, and looked exhausted when McGee didn’t go down after the 2nd round. It seems that Rodriguez didn’t take into account that McGee would be still standing at the end, and didn’t conserve his energy for the long haul, almost costing Rodriguez when he got hurt in the 8th round. By the last round, Rodriguez looked as if he would have done if he was hit by a feather pillow, and sure enough, after McGee landed a decent left-right combination, Rodriguez was stunned, causing him to back up to the ropes.
McGee poured on several more big shots and came close to ending the fight. However, Rodriguez survived the round and won the decision due to his work in the previous rounds of the fight. However, it had to have been a disappointing victory for Rodriguez, because he looked poor against McGee, certainly not like an A, or even a B-class fighter.