Trainer: Edwin Rodriguez Got Lazy in Past, Won’t Be Now

by David P. Greisman

It’s been a slow road back for Edwin Rodriguez in the two years since he lost to Andre Ward.

Rodriguez came in overweight for that super middleweight championship bout in November 2013, dropped a wide decision and proceeded to move up to light heavyweight. It took him 11 months to return. He outpointed Azea Augustama in October 2014, took Derrick Findley out in a single round in December 2014, and then won a third-round technical knockout over Craig Baker this past May.

Now Rodriguez will face Michael Seals on a Nov. 13 “Premier Boxing Champions” on Spike TV. And his trainer, Ronnie Shields, says he’s already seeing a better version of his fighter in camp than he did prior to the Baker bout.

“We’ve been working a lot just on Edwin’s skills. Edwin is one of the most skillful fighters in boxing. The thing about him is sometimes he gets lazy,” Shields said. “This camp has been I think the best camp we’ve had so far. I really like what I’m seeing.”

Shields said Rodriguez had a tendency to get up only for certain opponents, otherwise he would go through the motions.

“The guy has all the talent in the world, but at certain times I had to get on him,” the trainer said. “He knows I know it because I’ve been with him for a while, and I know how he does. For this camp, though, he’s been on a high for so long. Edwin knows if he wins this fight that he’s is in line for something big, whether it’s Adonis Stevenson or [Andrzej] Fonfara. His next fight should be against one of the top names out there.”

Rodriguez is now 27-1 with 18 KOs. Seals is 19-0 with 14 KOs. Baker, too, was undefeated going into the bout with Rodriguez, yet Shields said Rodriguez’s approach was worse given that he’d seen Baker spar previously.

“He saw the guy come spar with somebody else that I had, not knowing that we were going to fight this guy,” Shields said. “He just couldn’t get up for it. He came through, he won, but I wasn’t impressed the way he trained. I think now he’s at the point where he kind of realizes that in order to get to the upper echelon, you have to be prepared for everybody that’s in front of you. I really think the talk we had after the last fight, now he’s really doing something about it.”

Shields sees Seals as a “stern test” who is coming down from cruiserweight; Seals has been at light heavyweight since mid-2013. Seals has notched five wins since moving to 175, four of them by knockout, though the records of those opponents were 1-16, 9-30-2, 26-30, 13-12-5, and 7-5-1.

“We know it’s going to be a tough fight,” Shields said. “But it’s a fight that Edwin knows he has to win to prove that he belongs within the elite of the light heavyweight division.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com