[Video] Friday Night Fights Recap: Rodriguez Dominates Tahdooahnippah

UNCASVILLE, CT — Delvin Rodriguez added another scalp to his tenured Friday Night Fights resume with a systematic beatdown of previously undefeated George Tahdooahnippah at the Mohegan Sun.

The entire card was promoted around Rodriguez’s being one of the best action fighters in Friday Night Fights history and he sure didn’t disappoint.

THE FIGHT: After about a minute and a half of both starting fast and landing good shots, it became clear where this fight as headed. Rodriguez settled into his offense and began timing overhand rights and left hooks to the body. Rodriguez was landing most of these shots off the backfoot with the much slower Tahdooahnippah plodding forward into traps.

This one nearly ended early in the second when Rodriguez hurt Tahdooahnippah badly with the overhand right. Tahdooahnippah stumbled into the ropes where he received a series of rights that had his head grotesquely careening over the top rope. Referee Eddie Cotton was seconds away from stopping it at as the ring bell sounded. And in an ironic twist, Cotton misunderstood Tahdooahnippah’s corner and briefly called off the fight before the truth was discovered.

Sadly for the Tahdooahnippah, the fight being stopped in the second would have been much better for his health. Rodriguez went back to work and remained in cruise control — the overhand rights could not miss and every solid left hook downstairs had Tahdooahnippah doubling over. Tahdooahnippah wisely held time he was hurt, but Rodriguez finally hurt him for good in the sixth. Falling back into the ropes, Tahdooahnippah’s head did a replay of the second round by getting snapped back and forth under Rodriguez’s right hand before the ref stoppage.

RODRIGUEZ BACK FOR ANOTHER SHOT: Rodriguez had an ugly performance in his last fight back in September against Austin Trout. This win did a lot of justify him possibly earning another shot on Showtime or maybe HBO. I’m not sure if Gabriel Rosado would look at it as a step back after battling Golovkin to face a guy like Rodriguez, but that fight would be straight warfare. And I’m sure Friday Night Fights would have no problems airing a fight with Rodriguez against Brian Vera, who just scored a knockout of Sergiy Dzinziruk a few weeks back.

TAHDOOAHNIPPAH’S REALITY CHECK: George Tahdooahnippah was undefeated coming into last night (31-0, 23 KOs). The knock on him was he had zero notable names over his eight-year career (last night was his first 10 round bout). During the ring walk, with a rapper in tow and clad in the attire of his Comanche Indian roots, Tahdooahnippah had the look on his face of a fighter happily anxious to meet the moment that would define his professional career. But as the beating mounted, Tahdooahnippah wore the mask of a man helpless too change his fate. He tried for sure — Tahdooahnippah continued coming forward in hopes Rodriguez would make a mistake. But there were none and every Tahdooahnippah flaw, from his lack of head movement to the tendency to lean with his punches, was exploited in merciless fashion.

Next week Friday Night Fights returns with the excellent matchup of Lamont Peterson vs. Kendall Holt.