Although Floyd Mayweather Jr is widely regarded as the #1 pound-for-pound fighter on the planet many feel that his apparent heir to the throne is Andre Ward (26-0, 14). Ward, the #1 guy at Super Middleweight and the current WBA "super" champion, will look to show why he is so highly regarded this weekend as he returns from a very long lay off caused by injury.
Ward, defending the WBA title for the sixth time since taking it from Mikkel Kessler, will be fellow unbeaten Edwin Rodriguez (24-0, 16) a man who will be fighting in his first world title fight and his first fight against a world class fighter.
Although he has been inactive Ward is widely regarded as one of the world's most complete fighters. He has skills, defense, speed, better power than his record would indicate and the ability the really do it all. He can box with the best of them, he can trade inside when he needs to and although he's not a bang he hits cleanly enough to keep everyone honest. He really is, like him or not, a very complete boxer.
Whilst Ward is a complete fighter Rodriguez has his flaws, though on his flip-side he does his extra strengths. The key advantage Rodriguez has is that he's explosive puncher when he lets his hands go. That's not to say he's a monster puncher but his stoppage last time out over Denis Grachev was thoroughly impressive taking less than a round to take out the Russian.
At his best Rodriguez could be a nightmare for many contenders. His power, speed and offensive style will pose headaches to fighters. At his worst however he's frustrating and his fight with Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna showed as much as the two men had a very ugly and unmemorable contest.
What Rodriguez really has in his favour here is that Ward has been out of the ring for more than a year. Questions regarding how much ring-rust and how it will effect Ward are certainly there to be answered. If Ward is just a smidge slower than usual then Rodriguez may be able to jump on Ward. Problem is if Ward isn't feeling the effects of the ring rust then this really could be a master-class of a defense from a man willing re-introduce himself to the boxing community in a big way.
Prediction-Ward UD12
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