Boxing Round By Round: Jessie Feliciano vs. Delvin Rodriguez

This past Friday night at Foxwoods in Mashantucket, CT, welterweight Jessie Feliciano challenged reigning USBA titlist Delvin Rodriguez and stopped the heavily favored Dominican in the eighth round. Also on the bill, southpaw welter Said Ouali stopped rival Irving Garcia in the second round.

Round one: The highly anticipated bout between Feliciano and Rodriguez starts with Rodriguez coming out throwing a stiff jab and stalking the circling Feliciano. Feliciano is the much shorter fighter and is pawing with the jab early, trying to get inside. Rodriguez has his right hand cocked back and unleashes a quick one for the first time, a minute in, but fails to catch Feliciano as he moved inside.

Feliciano is circling to the right a lot early and two minutes through the round, hasn’t thrown anything other than a soft jab. Rodriguez has fast hands and catches Feliciano for the first time with a right uppercut as Feliciano charged inside with his head down. Feliciano seems very tentative in this opening round while Rodriguez is just looking for a place to fire. The whole round was spent as a feeling out session for both fighters.

Round two: Rodriguez has his hands way out in front of his face and is keeping Feliciano at bay just by putting his hands to the top of Feliciano’s head. Feliciano however, is more aggressive this round, coming in with his head down but Rodriguez is prepared and lands two very quick right uppercuts.

Feliciano goes back to the outside, only making halfhearted attempts to come inside after tasting the uppercuts. Feliciano lands his first good punch of the fight, two minutes into the second as he scores with a right hand over the top. Rodriguez backs up and goes back to inviting Feliciano to the inside so he can land the uppercut. As the round closes, both fighters begin to open up a bit as they trade hooks before clinching at the bell.

Round three: Picking up where they left off at the end of the second, both fighters let their hands loose a little more at the start, with Rodriguez slipping a lead hook and then swinging wide with a hook of his own. Rodriguez lands a right hand over the top as Feliciano walks inside. Feliciano seems to want to get on the inside but when he does, he doesn’t really know what to do and has no answer or the uppercut of Rodriguez.

Feliciano is still pawing with the jab to get inside but every time he does he gets hit with the uppercut, it’s been a recurring theme thus far in the fight. Still, Feliciano seems undaunted by the quick hitting Rodriguez and charges inside with a right hand over the top as the bell sounds.

Round four: Rodriguez looks very cool and relaxed in there, controlling range with the jab. Feliciano has picked his head up as he comes inside and is now more prone to the straight right rather than the uppercut which Rodriguez lands a minute into the round before tangling feet with Feliciano and tripping up.

Feliciano seems to be having better success with his head up as he looks to be walking through the right hands of Rodriguez and he’s been able to land some short right hands of his own. Feliciano’s balance looks very bad on the inside and he is unable to keep Rodriguez on the inside when he gets him there.

Round five: Feliciano swings wildly to start the round with the left hook and Rodriguez avoids it by taking a step back and then swinging with a right hand of his own. Feliciano has really not been able to mount any sort of consistent offense and is constantly venerable to the right hand of Rodriguez.

However, Feliciano mounts a successful attack halfway through the round, moving Rodriguez backwards and landing with the right hand. Rodriguez maneuvers his way out of danger but is holding his hands lower now and throwing with greater frequency, both landing and allowing himself to be countered. The round ends with Rodriguez on the back foot loading up with the right hand, landing one at the bell. An action packed round and the first bit of real success Feliciano has had thus far.

Round six: Feliciano looks very confident now and Rodriguez looks like he might be slowing down. Feliciano steps in with the right hand and Rodriguez steps to the side and catches Feliciano big with the right hand. Feliciano is just relentless coming inside and Rodriguez is beginning to move backwards a lot more now, but still managing to score with the right hand.

Rodriguez goes back to jabbing and stalking from the center of the ring and lands a giant right hand with a minute left in the round that buckles the knees of Feliciano. Feliciano comes back well and moves forward, trapping Rodriguez on the ropes, landing a few right hands of his own before smothering Rodriguez in a clinch. The action heats up at the end with Feliciano landing another right hand at the bell and then throwing a couple more after.

Round seven: Continuing the pace from the last round, Feliciano lands another lunging straight right to the jaw of Rodriguez, but again his lack of balance on the inside allows Rodriguez to slip outside. Rodriguez goes back to the middle of the ring where he pops off with the jab.

Rodriguez is using the jab a lot more now then he was in previous rounds where he was inactive on the outside and laid traps for Feliciano as he comes in. Rodriguez continues to dominate with the jab and the straight right on the outside and the round closes with Feliciano never able to mount any sort of attack.

Round eight: As has been the case in almost every round previous, Feliciano lands big once again with the right hand right out of the gate but Rodriguez answers nicely with a right uppercut and left hook before moving outside. Feliciano gets tagged with an uppercut from the outside and it is followed with a straight.

But Feliciano comes back in a big way with a straight right hand and has Rodriguez out on his feet as he tees off. Rodriguez goes down and gets up, but he is hurt in a very big way and has absolutely nothing in the tank. He is on shaky legs and goes down yet again. He gets up but the first right hand he is tagged with sends him through the bottom rope and the fight is stopped with just 20 seconds to go.

Jessie Feliciano moves to 15-5-3 (9) by winning a great scrap with Delvin Rodriguez, who falls to 20-2-1 (12).

On the undercard, a brief clash took place between welters Said Ouali and Irving Garcia.

Round one: Both fighters meet mid ring and Garcia initiates the action by popping off his jab to the gloves of Ouali. Ouali starts out with his hands in front of his face and sports a very stiff jab. Neither fighter has put anything behind the jab through the first minute. Garcia is starting to work with the lead left hook to the body but doesn’t seem to do any damage.

Garcia comes in again and the southpaw Ouali answers with a straight left and right hook combination. Still, Garcia looks unphased and continues to use the jab from the outside while Ouali remains relatively inactive. Garcia is putting the straight right hand behind the jab and finding good success with it, especially to the body.

Ouali still isn’t throwing much and with five seconds to go in the round, Garcia lunges in with a straight right that connects solidly but trips over the feet of Ouali and falls to the ground as the round ends.

Round two: Ouali comes out in a tight shelled defense and marches inside with a lead left to the body. Garcia moves back out after a straight left from Ouali and when he comes back in, gets caught with a straight left that dazes Garcia. Ouali smells blood and catches Garcia with a big left uppercut and a straight left and Garcia falls to the canvas.

He gets up at the count of eight but his legs have not returned. The fight continues and Ouali immediately jumps on him swinging wildly with hooks, somewhat smothering Garcia. Garcia returns fire but slips to the ground. Back up, Ouali comes back to the inside where he fires off with a left hook that again hurts Garcia.

Garcia takes a step straight backwards and Ouali catches him with a lengthy straight left that sends him to the canvas yet again. This time the fight is stopped. Ouali wins by knockout and improves to 21-2 (13) while Garcia drops to 14-3-1 (7).