Edwin Rodriguez the light heavyweight contender from Worcester, Massachusetts came into 2015 still looking to get back into title contention after suffering his first loss in 2013 to Andre Ward. Since that loss, Rodriguez rebounded with three wins heading into a fight with Michael Seals. It was looked as a stay busy fight for Edwin as Seals came into the bout with a 19-0 record but didn’t fight the type of opponents to be considered a huge threat to Edwin.
Rodriguez came storming out in the first round against Seals as Edwin was looking to make a statement perhaps wanting to let Seals know right away that he didn’t belong in the ring with him. Edwin started out great, dropping Seals very early into the fight, but Edwin was being careless defensively. As Edwin looked to finish Seals off, Michael weathered the storm as best he could landing a good right hand in between Edwin’s punches and scoring a knockdown himself.
The knockdown shocked Edwin and everyone in attendance, which made Rodriguez take his time on Seals, but would get careless again at the end of the round leaving his left hand too low while throwing a right hand, which resulted in a devastating counter right hand from Seals that would drop Edwin hard at the end of the round.
Edwin was on wobbly legs when getting up, but was saved by the bell. Rodriguez would go on to take back control of the bout in the second dropping Seals again before knocking him out for good in the third in devastating fashion.
The win puts Edwin Rodriguez in line for perhaps a title shot against Lineal and WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson in the near future.
Congratulations to both warriors in Edwin Rodriguez and Michaels Seals to producing TBV’s writing staff “Round of the Year.”
**EDITOR’S NOTE**
Thaboxingvoice is a multiplatform news/entertainment outlet dedicated to bringing you regional, coast-to-coast, and international coverage from the boxing world. Although our twice weekly podcast elected to have its own award show, we at TBV have a dedicated and supremely knowledgeable staff with talents ranging in several areas of expertise. Thus, the following article is the representation of the staff dedicated to TBV’s website.
Some of the picks may not line up with those announced on TBV’s live radio show/podcast, this is both intentional and inevitable. The voting panel was made up of a completely different set of panelist compared to that of the show (with the exception of one voter). The voting process was comprised of a point system based on a multi-selection ballot.
