Twin opportunity awaits Rodriguez
By Bud Barth TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
hbarth@telegram.com
WORCESTER— Edwin Rodriguez, the national Golden Gloves middleweight champion from Worcester who has his eyes riveted on the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, is going to be a father — twice.
Rodriguez, 21, said his live-in girlfriend, 23-year-old Holy Cross graduate Stephanie Rapa, is expecting twins on Jan. 21. The couple, planning to be married sometime in the future, will find out the twins’ sexes at a doctor’s visit on Aug. 29.
Shortly after that, Rodriguez will leave for Oxnard, Calif., and the National Police Athletic League championships, which are scheduled for Sept. 30 to Oct. 7. The winner earns the first of eight spots in the U.S. Olympic Trials, set for mid-June of 2007.
“It would pretty nice to be the first one to qualify because that says a lot about you,” said Rodriguez, a Doherty High grad currently on leave from his studies at Quinsigamond Community College. “All the best fighters in my weight class are going to be there, so it’s a good way to prove myself, that I’m No. 1 in USA Boxing.”
The USA Boxing rankings have already declared that. On the strength of his win at the national Golden Gloves in April, Rodriguez is No. 1 with 290 points, well ahead of Daniel Jacobs of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Jonathan Nelson of Little Rock, Ark., who are tied for second with 150 points.
If Rodriguez fails to win the PAL gold medal, he has several other routes to the Olympic Trials, including the 2007 national Golden Gloves in April, the USA Boxing national championships in January (a title he won in 2005), and the USA Boxing Eastern Trials in March.
The gold and silver medal winners at the USA Boxing nationals earn spots in the eight-man Olympic Trials, as do the winners of the Golden Gloves, PAL, Eastern Trials, Western Trials, Midwestern Trials and Armed Forces Championships.
Rapa, a 2005 HC graduate with a degree in political science, plans to attend law school at Western New England College, where she has a scholarship. The fact that she’s carrying two new mouths to feed makes Rodriguez even more determined to succeed — not that determination was ever a problem for him.
“Now I don’t only have to do it for myself, but for my family,” he said. “Now I have people who will be dependent on me, and that makes me work even harder and be more responsible about getting that gold medal at the Olympics.”
Certainly, there will be agents flocking after Rodriguez, trying to persuade him to turn pro now, but he said the fact that he has such a good chance at the Olympics makes him all the more determined to stick it out.
Rodriguez hasn’t been very active this summer, the result of USA Boxing’s decision to forego international trips while it gears up for the Olympics. He has done some sparring with unbeaten Worcester junior middleweight Enrique Palau (4-0-0, 4 KOs), and he won a three-round bout at the Marvelous Marvin Hagler Boxing Tournament for Charity last Saturday in Brockton.
Next, Rodriguez plans to travel to Ohio for an exhibition with Shawn Porter of Stow, Ohio, the fighter who dethroned him in the USA Boxing quarterfinals in March. Porter is ranked No. 5 nationally. For their troubles, Rodriguez and Porter will get all-expenses-paid trips to Hawaii.
Oct 8, 2006
Rodriguez keeps vigil over twin tots
By Bud Barth TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
hbarth@telegram.com
WORCESTER— They have a fighter for a dad, which probably explains why 8-day-old twins Edwin Kelly Rodriguez Jr. and Serena Lynn Rodriguez are waging such an incredible battle to stay alive.
The tiny babies were due on Jan. 21, but apparently they heard the bell early and sprang into this world in the wee hours of Sept. 29 — four months early and weighing a frail 19 ounces each.
Their early arrival put off the plans of their father, Edwin Rodriguez, the defending national Golden Gloves middleweight champion from Worcester, who was supposed to leave on the day they were born for Oxnard, Calif., and the Police Athletic League national championships. That event is the first qualifier for next summer’s Olympic Trials.
Instead, the PAL crowned a middleweight champion in its finals last night while Rodriguez and his fiancée, Stephanie Rapa, kept their constant vigil next door to the battling babies at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of UMass Memorial Medical Center — University Campus.
“The fact that they even made it through birth is amazing,” said their mom, who was only discharged as a patient herself on Friday, a week after the twins’ abrupt arrival. “They’re just little fighters. They take after their dad, I guess.”
The twins have had their problems. The first was their size — 1 pound, 3 ounces each at birth. Each also had an opening in their heart, but those were closed with medication. Then they began to lose weight, if that seems even possible, both sinking under one pound, although both have started to regain some badly needed ounces. Now they have infections, which are being treated with antibiotics.
“The nurses and doctors here truly work miracles,” said Rapa, a 23-year-old Holy Cross graduate, “because the babies were born at 23 weeks and 5 days, and any time before 22 weeks, they can’t resuscitate babies. So they basically just made it.”
Adding to the miracle is that their impending birth was only discovered through a routine doctor’s visit on Tuesday, three days before the surprise arrivals and the couple’s planned trip to Oxnard.
Now, of course, the entire focus of Rodriguez’s life is on his newborn son, whom he calls “Little Edwin,” and his daughter.
“We hope people will keep them in their thoughts and prayers because it seems like it’s helping,” Rapa said, taking the time to explain the situation after Rodriguez became overcome with emotion.
The couple became engaged recently, but no date has been set for the wedding. “So many things are going on right now, we haven’t talked about it yet,” said the 21-year-old Rodriguez, who was aware who was fighting in last night’s PAL middleweight final.
The combatants were defending champion Daniel Jacobs of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Jonathan Nelson of Little Rock, Ark. Nelson is the man Rodriguez beat in the Golden Gloves final earlier this year, and also in the USA Boxing final to win that national title in 2005. It was the third straight PAL final for Jacobs.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez is keeping up with his training as best he can. He plans to fight Shawn Porter of Stow, Ohio, one of his national rivals, on Nov. 11 in a four-round benefit in Ohio. Then he plans to compete in January in the USA Boxing national championships in Colorado Springs, Colo., the event he won in 2005. The top two finishers there will punch their tickets to the Olympic Trials sometime next June, where the boxers will be chosen for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Being one of those boxers is Rodriguez’s dream at 165 pounds. But first he has to deal with the realities and frailties of life at 19 ounces.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
By Bud Barth TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
hbarth@telegram.com
Twins still ‘very critical’
An update on the fragile twin babies born two weeks ago to Golden Gloves national middleweight champion Edwin Rodriguez of Worcester and his fiancée, Stephanie Rapa:
As of late Friday afternoon, both babies, Edwin Kelly Rodriguez Jr. and Serena Lynn Rodriguez, remained in “very critical condition” in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of UMass Memorial Medical Center — Memorial Campus after being born four months premature on Sept. 29, according to their mother.
Rapa said the twins, who weighed just 19 ounces each at birth, are waging their battle for life “hour by hour, day by day,” and that she and Rodriguez, as well as the doctors and nurses at the hospital, are “still hopeful” for a full recovery.
“Little Edwin,” as the baby boy is known, was a little worse off than his sister as of Friday. His lungs are so underdeveloped that he requires 100 percent oxygen, and he came very close to death the day before. His sister redeveloped an opening in her heart, which is being treated with medication.
As before, Rodriguez and Rapa are asking for the prayers of friends, fans and readers.
Edwin Rodriguez, 21, Worcester: #1 Ranked Middleweight Boxer in America/Olympic hopeful
By Michael Shivick
Edwin Rodriguez and his trainer, Carlos Garcia, frequent the Boys and Girls Club on Ionic Avenue in downtown Worcester. Their passports have also been stamped in Canada, China, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and England. So goes the life of the number one ranked middle weight (165 pound) boxer in the US and the first MA resident to win the USA Nationals since 1973. After settling for a bronze medal in the 2006 USA Nationals, Edwin put his nose to the proverbial grindstone and brought home the gold medal at this year’s National Golden Gloves tournament, etching his name in history alongside past winners Mike Tyson, Cassius Clay (Mohammed Ali), and Roy Jones, Jr, to name but a few. Tough in body but tender at heart, Edwin claims that spending a majority of his time on the road and away from his family ~ especially his newborn twins, Serena and Edwin, Jr.~ is absolutely as tough as any training he’s been through. When asked about any New Year’s resolutions, the gold medalist replies, “To try and walk around closer to my fighting weight of 165 [and] to work as hard as I can not only to make the Olympic Team but to also prepare myself physically and mentally to bring home a Olympic gold medal next year in 2008.”
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Rodriguez quits Pan-Am pursuit
By Bud Barth TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
hbarth@telegram.com
WORCESTER— In the name of fatherhood, Worcester’s Edwin Rodriguez — the defending Golden Gloves national champion as well as the 2005 USA Boxing national champion, both at 165 pounds — has abandoned his quest to fight in this year’s Pan American Games.
Rodriguez was one of four middleweights scheduled to take part in the Pan American Qualifier Box-Offs this coming weekend in Colorado Springs, Colo., the first step toward fighting in the Pan American Games in July in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Instead, the 21-year-old will stay home and learn infant CPR techniques and how to operate the oxygen equipment that will be needed when his 3 1/2-month-old twins, Edwin Kelly Rodriguez Jr. and Serena Lynn Rodriguez, come home from the hospital in about three weeks.
The babies were born four months prematurely on Sept. 29, weighing a frail 19 ounces each, and have been hospitalized ever since at UMass Memorial Medical Center — University Campus. The tots have had numerous health problems, and both underwent successful eye surgery recently to prevent blindness. Both now weigh more than four pounds.
The premature birth of the babies by Rodriguez’s fiancée, Stephanie Rapa, prompted dad to cancel his planned participation in the Police Athletic League national championships in October at Oxnard, Calif., the first qualifier for the Olympic Trials. Rodriguez was to leave for Oxnard the day the babies were born.
Now, Rodriguez plans to begin defense of his Golden Gloves title in two weeks with local competition. If he repeats as champion at the finals in May at Chattanooga, Tenn., it will earn him a bye directly into the quarterfinals of the USA Boxing national championships in June at Colorado Springs, and an automatic berth in the Olympic Trials, to be held in August at a site to be determined.
If he loses in the Golden Gloves, Rodriguez still will enter the USA Boxing championships, where all eight quarterfinalists earn spots in the Olympic Trials. The 2008 Olympics will be in Beijing, China.
Said Rodriguez, who has been working out and training in between hospital visits: “Babies and family come first.”
Happy father's day, Edwin Rodriguez celebrates birth of twins with a resounding win
By CARMINE FRONGILLO, Sun Staff
Article Last Updated: 02/07/2007 11:33:44 AM EST
LOWELL -- Defending national champion Edwin Rodriguez turned the Greater Lowell Golden Gloves finals into a father's day bash.
Golden Gloves
Rodriguez's fiancé, Stephanie Rapa, gave birth to twins, Edwin Jr. and Serena Lynn in September. The twins were born premature, but are doing well and finally came home from the hospital last week.
His family demands have increased dramatically, but from the look of things parenthood agrees with Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, 21, a Worcester native, pounded his way to a unanimous decision victory over hard-working Eduardo Pena in their 165-pound Open Division championship bout before a crowd of 1,800 at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium last night.
The victory improved Rodriguez's amateur record to 65-6. Pena, a Novice champ last year, just moved up to the Open class this winter and has an overall slate of 12-3.
"The twins were born on September 29," said Rodriguez. "Their due date was January 21. I guess they heard the bell early and came out. They're fighters.
"Thankfully, everything is well. They're doing much better. They are gaining weight. Everything is going smoother now."
From the outset, Rodriguez came out firing, and most of his punches were on target. He landed some fearsome shots, as his gloves were a blue blur.
Pena tried to match Rodriguez, landing some stinging combos of his own, but he simply couldn't match the all-out assault he encountered.
"I trained hard for this fight," said Pena. "He's a pretty good fighter. I tried to match him, one for one. But he was too fast. I couldn't even think when he was throwing punches. He throws a lot of punches. He's real fast. And he has good stamina."
Once Rodriguez got going, he never let up, applying constant pressure. He backed Pena into a corner several times and scored with piercing flurries.
"This is the type of fight I've been working out for," said Rodriguez. "It was a brawl. I had to just keep coming. That was my game plan in the gym. I executed it today and did pretty good.
"He stood his ground. I give him props. He took pretty much everything I had. He looked like he was going, but he never did."
To his credit, Pena fought hard to the final bell.
"You can't take a step back against a fighter like him," said Pena. "He just keeps moving forward. He kept coming at me and caught me in the corner. It was tough to fight my way out. This was a good learning experience. I'm just going to go back to the gym and pick up the pieces."
While Rodriguez goes back to being a proud papa.
Daddy and Edwin
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