Definitely an underrated fighter. Could do it all in there. Could box and bang, great jab, excellent right hand, beautiful technique, busy to the body, excellent movement and could really use his legs and a rock solid chin. Fought with so many other top fighters from top contenders, ex-champions, future champions, up & comers, hall of famers etc; Really a fearless fighter who'd not care about facing feared guys at middleweight and often school them. He was very unfortunate not to have gotten at least two of the decisions against Emile Griffith. I personally felt he should have been 3-1 or even 4-0 up in the series and not the 1-3 that caused history to underrate him somewhat. Years after his career I believe it was in The Ring magazine where three experts were polled (Hank Kaplan, Angelo Dundee and Emile Griffith) on who they thought would win between Rodriguez and another Cuban great Jose Napoles and all three picked Rodriguez. I think that shows just how highly he was regarded. He'd have been a handful for just about anybody in welterweight history. I'd love to hear any insight from folks here who may have seen him live and also if anybody had the pleasure of seeing his fights with Briscoe, Carter, Akins, Logart, Cokes and Benton.
