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ESPN.com is reporting Edwin Rodriguez will return to the ring on October 18th for the first time since getting outclassed by Andre Ward almost a year ago. HBO, amazingly, paid Rodriguez $1 million for that fight which didn't stop him from missing weight for what was clearly the biggest opportunity of his career.
The fight was atrocious, but now HBO still has to provide the contractually obligated "get well" return. In a move that makes me giggle, Rodriguez's bout will be relegated to HBO Latino and won't be part of the WCB broadcast that will feature Gennady Golovkin against Marco Antonio Rubio and Nonito Donaire taking on Nicholas Walters.
Rodriguez will fight Azea Augustama, whose highest level fight was a decision loss to Denis Grachev.
"This is his contract comeback fight. HBO wanted to put it on HBO Latino and we were OK with that," said Lou DiBella, Rodriguez's promoter. "Edwin is fighting at 175 now and we didn't want to fight a stooge. We wanted a solid guy to see where he is and to assess it pretty quickly. Augustama is a guy we can do that with. I don't think this is a walk-in-the-park kind of fight."
How many of you will bother to search for HBO Latino to catch this fight?