Two super middleweight with almost identical records entered the ring for a 12 round bout. One, Andre Ward (26-0,14 KOs) being the WBA Super World Super Middleweight Champion (and WBC Super Middleweight Champion), while the other, Edwin Rodriguez the challenger ( 24-0, 16KOs) didn't even make weight. As the saying goes "one of those '0's' is got to go". But the WBA title was no longer on the line. The rationale behind not making weight for a major title fight escapes me, but the fight went on.
The first 4 rounds seemed more like an MMA outing than a boxing bout. Referee Jack Reiss had his hands full, continually having to separate the combatants and getting shoved and punched in the process. In the 4th he had had enough, penalizing both fighters 2 points each for unsportsmanlike conduct and asking the the commission to fine them both. After that things started to settle down, although Reiss still felt it necessary to step in between both fighters on the occasional round ending stare down.
Needless to say Ward dominated Rodriguez in an impressive fashion, landing combinations while Rodriguez was only able to land single shots.
Here are my images from that fight;
Rodriguez scores early, but we saw little of this afterwards.
The 4th round, Reiss has to pull the fighters apart,
then talks to Rodriguez,
Then Ward,
And finally reminds each fighter again at the beginning of the 5th!
After things settled down, Ward totally dominated.
With head shot after head shot,
Reiss stepping in between at rounds end, escorting Ward back to the corner while Rodriguez continues to stare!
If you can't hit him with the glove, the elbow to the back of the head will do!
In the end it was a unanimous decision, 118-106, 117-107, 116-108 for Andre 'S.O.G.' Ward
Special thanks to Goossen/Tudor Promotions.
As always all text and images are copyright Peter Politanoff / RedStarImage and cannot be reproduced without explicit consent. You are welcome however to link to this site.
All images shot with Canon 1Dx and EF 300mm f/2.8 lens. I was 'shooting from the stratosphere'.
All images are also available in color.