Super Middleweight Edwin Rodriguez was 2 pounds over the 168 pound weight limit for his Saturday fight with champion Andre Ward in Ontario, California according to Dan Rafel of espn.com
“We’re going to work on [losing the 2 pounds]. I feel pretty good,” Rodriguez said while still at the scale after being overweight. “I’m gonna work on it.”
“I think there’s a chance Edwin might not be able to make this weight again,” Lou DiBella, Rodriguez’s promoter, told ESPN.com. “He couldn’t lose another ounce. He couldn’t even spit.”
For missing weight, the commission fined Rodriguez 20 percent of his career-high $1 million purse. Of the $200,000 fine, half will go to the commission and the remaining $100,000 will be given to Ward, boosting his purse from $1.9 million to $2 million.
As part of a deal made with the Ward camp, Rodriguez is required to reweigh at 9 a.m. PT on Saturday and cannot be heavier than 180 pounds.
“It’s at his peril,” DiBella said.
“I’m greatly disappointed and I’m really annoyed,” DiBella said. “I’m not a hypocrite. I’ve been public about this situation with other fighters and talked about their unprofessionalism, and I’m not going to change my tune because he’s my fighter.
“This is the opportunity of your lifetime, this is everything to this kid and his family, and I’m greatly disappointed. I truly believe in him as a fighter and that he had a chance to do something great, and now he is in a situation where he can’t win the belt, and he has been docked money his family desperately needed, and I have a hard time believing he will be at his best. I have empathy if he simply couldn’t make the weight, but that doesn’t change the annoyance or disappointment or stop me from saying I’m sorry on behalf of his team to Andre Ward, Ward’s team, HBO and to the fans.”
