By Luis Sandoval

Edwin Rodriguez suffered the first loss of his professional career at the hands of Andre Ward who simply dominated him in their fight Saturday night at the Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, CA. Rodriguez also failed to make the super middleweight 168 pound limit as he came in 2 pounds overweight and was not able to shed the additional weight in the allotted time.

Rodriguez addressed the weight issue after the fight at the post press conference where he apologized and revealed he had been struggling to make the weight in previous fights as well.

“I want to apologize and I hope everyone understands it wasn’t something that I planned. I’ve been struggling to make 168 for the last three fights. Even two days ago I felt I would have no problem making 168 but it’s one of those things where your body just gives up on you one day and that was that day” said Rodriguez.

Edwin also confirmed he will be moving up to the light heavyweight division and his days as a super middleweight are over.

“I think after this fight there’s no way I’ll be able to make 168 anymore. I thought I was going to be able to do it but I wasn’t. I still went in there and gave 100% against the best super middleweight in the world. I’m not proud because I didn’t win but it’s time for me to move up and fight the good fighters at 175” revealed Rodriguez.

Rodriguez’s promoter Lou DiBella is very confident Rodriguez will do great at 175 but he also feels he needs to work his way into the division an also get some better conditioning preparation given his recent weight struggle.

“Edwin will fight for a light heavyweight title in 2014. There will probably be a fight at light heavyweight against another contender before we would jump up to an Adonis Stevenson type of fight. But I have no doubt Edwin would possibly beat Stevenson right now but I think our whole team wants to talk to him about his conditioning and getting him acclimated to being a light heavyweight” DiBella would tell the media.

Rodriguez was disappointed in defeat but is looking forward to entering a new division and taking on the best fighters.

You can follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter and Instagram @Truewest007.