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It wasn’t as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, but Andre Ward probably doesn’t feel too far removed from that activity after the WBA “Super” super middleweight champion blunted the challenge of Edwin Rodriguez last night in a very ungainly and clinch filled contest.
The bout didn’t take place in Ward’s hometown of Oakland, but the crowd in attendance was firmly behind their fellow Californian at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario.
Ward had little difficulty finding the big holes in the defense of Rodriguez, time and time again spearing the Massachusetts visitor with a pinpoint jab and snapping his head back with very crisp left hook counters.
Rodriguez showed a very big heart, despite the very frustrating position he was in as nothing he did really worked, in continuing to try and nail Ward, but the skill level between the two fighters was just too great for the challenger to ever come close to pulling off the upset.
It was also a very big ask of Rodriguez, by his backers, to put him in with someone as formidable as Ward without having really prepared their man by skill-building, rather than record-building, matchmaking leading up to this.
With his distinct ability to keep opponents off balance with movement and a hard jab, Ward continued that approach against Rodriguez and showed no ill effects from 14 months away from the ring nor undergoing shoulder surgery in January.
As Rodriguez’s defense is really shutting adversaries down with his big swinging offense, Ward simply dismantled the challenger by not being there to hit and then slugging the visitor when Rodriguez was off balance.
Both fighters were guilty of clinching repeatedly throughout the bout but it would have been a far uglier fight were it not for the persistent, good efforts of referee Jack Reiss.
Such was Ward’s mastery of the action that his performance produced scores of 118-106, 117-107 and 116-108 despite a lack of knockdowns or points taken away for infractions.
Ward improves to 27-0 (14) and resumes his residence atop the 168 pound division, perhaps looking forward to a big clash with the likes of WBA middleweight king Gennady Golovkin or light heavyweight champions Bernard Hopkins and Adonis Stevenson.
Rodriguez suffers his first loss to drop to 24-1 (16). Ideally, this disappointment could turn into valuable experience if he develops a good defense and the ability to box himself into position before unleashing his big punches.
