By Marc Livitz. Last night in Uncasville, Connecticut two "almost there"
varieties of seasoned fighters met in the ring for a strategic battle.
Delvin Rodriguez earned a hard fought victory over Freddy Hernandez in a
light middleweight bout at the Mohegan Sun Casino. Rodriguez
(28(16)-6(1)-3) had his majority decision win changed to an appropriate
TKO win over Hernandez (30(20)-5-1 ND). Freddy was no easy assignment,
as he had previously shared the ring with such champions as Erislandy
Lara and Andre Berto.
Each fighter kept their respective distance in the opening round of
the matchup. Although they tried to use the ring, they would eventually
gravitate back to the center. Delvin would double up his left jab and
Freddy was able to capitalize with a counter left jab of his own. The
second was difficult to score at times. The jabs continued to connect
for both men, yet most attempts at landing the lead hand were still made
to wait. Each fighter threw a bit wide, too short or too low. Hernandez
was just a bit more active and he connected with some significant shots
in the third. An accidental head butt opened a small cut over
Rodriguez’s right eye. The two exchanged towards the end of the fourth
and Delvin began to push the action more. He tried to load up on his
right during the fifth round. Hernandez still tried to grind the
activity levels down, which actually allowed both fighters to connect
with body shots.
The halfway point of the scheduled ten round bout had passed and each
combatant seemed recharged. Delvin was beating Freddy to the punch, but
his Mexico City opponent proved his ring savvy over and over again. He
made sure that Rodriguez could never effectively gain any momentum.
Freddy landed a solid straight right towards the end of the seventh
which contributed to the swelling of Delvin’s left eye to accompany his
already damaged right eye. Another clash of heads stalled the contest to
begin round eight.
Freddy now sported a ghastly cut over his left eye thanks to two
powerful rights from his Connecticut foe and the bout was then stopped
according to the discretion of the ringside doctor. The ultimate call
was left to the ringside judges, although the decision should have been a
straight putt to a TKO victory for Delvin Rodriguez. In the end,
matters had already been settled. The scorecards read as follows: 76-76,
77-75 and 78-74. Rodriguez wins by majority decision (which was soon
changed to a TKO win) and gains the IBF Junior Middleweight title.
Undercard Results Jimmy Williams TKO3 Marqus Jackson – Welterweights Chris Howard TD6 Issouf Kinda- Jr. Welterweights Constantin Bejenaru v Excell Homes - ND2 – Heavyweights Michael Mitchell UD4 Saul Almeida - Super Middleweights
Michael Moore UD6 Doel Carrasquillo - Light Middleweights
