Kusineroman's Sports Blog

Classy boxer-puncher Delvin Rodriguez has been seeking a breakthrough type of fight for some time, and he has had to travel to South Africa for his opportunity.

Rodriguez, the 28-year-old from Connecticut, meets Isaac Hlatswayo in an IBF welterweight title elimination match at the Emperors Palace casino hotel in Kempton Park on Monday — a championship chance against Joshua Clottey awaits the winner.

Hlatswayo, 31, is the slight favourite based on the fight’s location. Rodriguez has some advantages, though. He is younger and taller — and he’s also a 147-pounder meeting a boxer who was fighting at 140 pounds just a couple of years ago. In addition to this, Rodriguez clearly seems to be the puncher in the fight.

A slight concern is that Rodriguez’s last fight saw his opponent, Oscar Diaz, collapse afterwards and undergo brain surgery. It put a sad postscript on what had been a superb performance by Rodriguez, and one must wonder if the fight will have any effect on the way he performs against Hlatswayo. When something such as this happens, a fighter can usually come to terms with the situation by knowing that what happened was just an accident, but you never know. Fighters react to these things in different ways.