Unbeaten Edwin Rodriguez Steps Up To Showtime’s Main Event Bout

Added on Nov 02, 2010 by Brian Blake in

Boxing

This Friday night Edwin Rodriguez, fighting out of Worcester, Massachusetts, takes the next step of his promising career as he takes on James McGirt, Jr. in a ten round bout with the vacant WBC USNBC super middleweight title up for grabs. The regional title fight will serve as the main event for the latest installment of Showtime Sports’ ShoBox: The New Generation series in Fargo, North Dakota.

“It’s special because the fight is on Showtime and everybody will be watching,” Rodriguez stated of his first main event on a national network. “It’s a good feeling being in the main event on Showtime. I always want to be impressive, but I’m in the main event this time, so I need to take it to the next level.

“It’s hard not to think about where a win could put me, but I have McGirt in front of me and he’s a good fighter. You can’t look ahead in boxing and I’m not. I take ‘em one fight at a time. I don’t really care about rankings but I do know it can get me closer to where I want to be and that’s winning a world title.”

Rodriguez might be shying away from looking towards life following a win over McGirt, but when he opens his eyes to it he might find that he has graduated from the world of being a prospect and have become a legitimate top 15 world ranked contender. It’s a position that his opponent once found himself in.

“McGirt was a top 10 contender who has good boxing skills,” Edwin noted. “He has a good jab and good body attack. He’s been great in some fights, not so great in others. I need to win to get to the next level in this division.”

To help him reach the next level, Rodriguez traveled to Australia to help out middleweight Danny Geale for his bout with Roman Karmazin. It wasn’t just Rodriduez that benefited from the deal as Geale wound up stopping Karmazin in the final minutes of their IBF Eliminator bout. In addition to working with Geale, Rodriguez stepped into the ring with 2004 Australian Olympian Jamie Pittman in hopes that Pittman could emulate McGirt’s southpaw style.

“I basically had world-class sparring every day for two weeks,” Rodriguez said. “Everything about it was great. It was their camp and we got up to run, then went to the gym to work-out, and then we sparred in the afternoon. It was a great feeling (going away to train for the first time), no worries, and I improved my skills. I didn’t stay in a hotel room by myself. I stayed with a family that had no ties to boxing. They were really good to me. When I wasn’t training, they took me to see the opera house, harbor-bridge and other places of interest. All-around Australia was a good time.”

With the good time over in Australia, Rodriguez returned The States to fine tune and put the finishing touches on the all out style that he has assaulted his recent opponents with.

“I’ve always liked throwing body shots,” he explained, “I just didn’t focus on body punching as much as I do now. I used to throw to the body to set-up head shots. It’s different now – I throw head shots to set-up the body. I love the way they fall when I stop them with a body shot.”

Whether the win comes from a head shot, body shot or a decision in his favor, at the end of the night Rodriguez will have taken part in the biggest fight of his young career and will be one major step closer to his dreams of fighting for a world title with the entire nation looking on.