Previewing the best upcoming fights around the world
OUTSTANDING
GOOD
FAIR
DISAPPOINTING
RUBBISH
The star ratings indicate how well the writer believes the fighters match up, the fight(s)’ contextual significance, and how good the fight(s) will be
IT is often said of heavyweights that rivals are required in order to truly achieve greatness and create a long-lasting legacy and that, when thinking of someone like Muhammad Ali, for example, we will also think of Joe Frazier and George Foreman, without whom he would not have been the Muhammad Ali we know today.
If this is true of heavyweights, and it certainly is, it is even more imperative for fighters in the lower weight classes to find their equal – their rival – and hold on to them as though a once-missing child, or a passport. Without them, after all, it will be easier for fans and for history to overlook these boxers, so small are they in stature and so shallow, historically, is the division in which they compete. Without a rival, they can still win belts, of course, but only the connoisseurs of the sport will likely remember their achievements when all is said and done.
This is perhaps and , who meet this Saturday in Glendale, Arizona. Alone, they are both respected technicians, unbeaten, and seemingly getting better. Yet together, which is the arrangement this weekend, Rodriguez and Edwards are suddenly headliners in a big fight, and maybe as close to stardom as either of them are ever going to get.
