by David P. Greisman

Light heavyweight Edwin Rodriguez hasn’t been in the ring since his second-round knockout loss to Thomas Williams Jr. last April. That’s not because of the defeat, but rather because he had a torn ACL, an injury that predated the Williams loss and then went out completely during a game of basketball months later.

But he’s back in training as of this week, according to trainer Ronnie Shields, who wants his fighter to focus on a simple but important flaw that led to his loss to Williams.

“Edwin made a mistake. He made two mistakes in his last two fights,” Shields said, referencing a victory over Michael Seals in November 2015 in which Rodriguez was down twice in the first round before coming back to win.

“Sometimes fighters get in their heads that they can just take anything from everybody,” Shields said. “It all depends on how you get hit. If you brace for a shot, of course you take it better. If you don’t see a shot, it can be devastating to you. It happened in the Michael Seals fight. We did a lot of work and thought we had it down. He hurt Thomas Williams. Sometimes you go for the kill and forget. He got caught with a punch he didn’t see.”

The loss dropped Rodriguez’s record to 28-2 with 19 KOs. The other loss came by decision to then-super middleweight champ Andre Ward back in 2013.

“I think one thing we have to work on is his concentration on what he’s doing,” Shields said. “Edwin knows he can box and can punch also. But he forgets sometimes that he has to keep his hands up. That’s going to be the most important thing.”

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