Rising middleweight prospect Edwin Rodriguez joins 8CN!

After having an opponent pull out of a scheduled fight last week in New Hampshire, undefeated middleweight prospect Edwin Rodriguez (11-0, 8 KO’s) will stay within the friendly confines of New England as he takes on veteran journeyman Darnell Boone (16-12, 6 KO’s) this Saturday at the Twin River Events Center in Lincoln, Rhode Island.

“This opportunity came up to fight Boone and we jumped on it”, said Rodriguez happy to get a fight in so soon after his cancelled bout last week.

It’ll be Rodriguez’s first appearance at the Twin River since August of last year when he unanimously outpointed Florida’s Marcus Upshaw. That was the last time he was forced to go the distance. Since then, he’s scored three consecutive TKO wins over Brad Austin, Patrick Thompson and Angel David Gonzalez. Displays of power he credits to working with his trainer Peter Manfredo Sr.

“He taught me how to punch the right way and how to sit on my punches”, said Rodriguez, a former national amateur champion, “I see myself hitting harder with every punch I throw.”

His highlight reel KO of Brad Austin is currently being featured in a Prilosec OTC commercial that encourages consumers to “knockout heartburn”.

Though Rodriguez will mention the idea of someday fighting for a title and will openly discuss the idea of someday being featured on Showtime’s “Shobox” series, he’s not looking past Darnell Boone.

Boone has fought and lost to noteworthy opponents such as current light heavyweight titleholder Jean Pascal, Olympic gold medalist Andre Card and The Contender’s Brian Vera. He’s only been stopped once and most recently he’s lost consecutive decision losses to unbeaten prospects Craig McEwan and Erislandy Lara.

Rodriguez hopes to follow in their footsteps with a win, but hope that victory comes via a knockout.

“He’s been in there with a lot of good prospects and he’s not only been in there but he’s gone the distance and beaten a couple of them”, Rodriguez said. Boone’s best victory is probably a decision over the Floyd Mayweather Sr. trained light heavyweight prospect Ron Johnson.

“I need to work for the knockout”, Rodriguez said.

A resident of nearby Worcester, Massachusetts, Rodriguez will surely have a noticeable cheering section on hand Saturday. They’ll all be looking to see if their hometown guy can take a step in the right direction towards a world title and how impressively can he win.