Rodriguez headlines in Houston!
Browning Boxing back in action

August 16, 2006

By Peter Lim
http://www.fightnews.com/lim17.htm

Heavyweight David Rodriguez will get a chance to annul the only blemish – if you can even call it a blemish – on his almost-perfect record of 22-0 (21 KOs). Rodriguez is scheduled to take on John Turlington at the latest Browning Boxing Fight Night on Thursday, August 17 at the Houston Grand Plaza in Houston, TX. Turlington, 5-9-1 (4 KOs), remains the only man to have heard the final bell against Rodriguez when he lost a four-round decision to Rodriguez last year.

"I honestly don't see this as anything personal," Rodriguez said. "I see it as just another obstacle. My management picked this fight for me and he's just another opponent I need to get by. I take John Turlington very seriously."

Although the caliber of his opposition has been anything but impressive, Rodriguez' 20 first-round knockouts still says a lot about his ability to crack. Blessed with a lethal combination of natural speed and power, the 6'5" El Paso native has demonstrated the capacity to flatten opponents at any given moment with either fist.

"If I can go home early," Rodriguez said, "I'm going home early."

Unlike most heavyweight headhunters, Rodriguez is partial to banging the body in the style typical of lighter-weight Mexican fighters. Trained by Louie Burke, Rodriguez, 28, thinks the time is fast approaching for him to clean up a division as chaotic and fractured as the former Soviet Union from where all the current titleholders hail.

"A lot of people say that the heavyweight division's weak but I just think that there are so many belts out there and everyone that has a belt doesn't want to fight each other," Rodriguez said. "So you can't really decide who's the best because they don't fight each other. When I get a chance to get a belt, I'm going to fight everybody else who has a belt."