Undefeated professional and two-time national amateur champion Edwin Rodriguez of Worcester, Mass., improved his record to 4-0 with a fourth-round technical knockout of veteran Jeffrey Osborne Jr. of Davenport, Iowa, in a super middleweight bout scheduled for four rounds in Boston Saturday night..
It was Rodriguez’s second fight with trainer Peter Manfredo Sr.
Rodriguez, who now has a record of 4-0 with three knockouts, ended it at 2:55 of the fourth round. Rodriguez dominated the bout from the start and won every round. Osborne Jr. now has a mark of 4-10-2 with one knockout.
“I felt the best I have yet,” said Rodriguez, who weighed in at 163, one and one-half pounds less than for his bout two weeks ago and two pounds less than Osborne Jr. “I applied the things I’ve been learning in the gym and it all worked out. But, I know I have a lot of work to do and a long way to go.”
“This was a good experience for Edwin, because Jeffrey was durable and just kept on coming,” said Manfredo Sr. “He didn’t run; he wanted to make a fight of it. He’s better than his 4-10 record.”
“There were plenty of good things to take from this win,” said Larry Army Jr., Rodriguez’s manager. “Edwin controlled the fight from the start, kept busy throughout and eventually finished him (Osborne Jr.). It accelerated the learning curve.”
This was Rodriguez’s fourth fight in just 11 weeks. The 6-foot Rodriguez took a four-round unanimous decision over James North March 28 in Salamanca, N.Y.; stopped Fitzgerald Johnson in the fourth round Feb. 8 in Boston; and halted Samuel Ortiz Gomez in the first round Jan. 26 in Mansfield, Mass.
Rodriguez won the USA Boxing national championship for 2005 and the Golden Gloves national championship for 2006, both at 165 pounds.
Rodriguez, who has lived in Worcester since arriving in the United States from his native Dominican Republic during 1998, considered competing for a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team, but the premature birth of twins, Edwin Jr. and Serena Lynn, changed his priorities. Stephanie Rapa, Edwin’s fiancee and mother of the twins, is a graduate of Holy Cross with a degree in political science and has been accepted by the Western New England School of Law.