GREELEY - When Robert Rodriguez woke up in a strange room in Baku, Azerbaijan, 15 months ago and looked out his window, he should have known his life in Greeley never would be the same.

Only 15 at the time, he was sick with the flu, couldn't call home and was worried about anti- American fervor in the Muslim nation, which borders the Caspian Sea between Iran and Russia.

But his problems were only beginning.

Shortly after climbing into a ring at an international junior boxing tournament, Rodriguez climbed out, beaten physically and emotionally in a bout that would haunt him all the way back to Colorado.

"I almost quit," he said. "I was down. More than anything, I was really mad at myself."

But even Azerbaijan couldn't knock Rodriguez's career off its impressive arc.

Since then, he has been all over the map, flying through amateur boxing ranks with precocious poise and a nice jab.

Six months after entering the senior division, and a month before turning 17, the slick, 5-foot-11 featherweight (125 pounds) overpowered two surprised veterans at the U.S. Championships, earning a spot in the U.S. Olympic team trials in Houston from Aug. 18-21.

A victory there, and Rodriguez will be a step closer to a spot in the 2008 Beijing Games next August.

"I'm still a kid and this is really big. It's happening so fast, it's hard to catch up with it," he said.

Every four years, seemingly, a teen prodigy surfaces before the Games, a young flash who beats his established elders in a generational turn in the sport. Someone such as Rau'Shee Warren, who qualified for the 2004 Athens Olympics at 17 and shot to the top of the rankings before he could vote.

Rodriguez hasn't produced a similar breakthrough moment, but as he feints and jabs during a weeknight workout at the Jesus Rodarte Cultural Center, it's obvious he has an aficionado's appreciation of skill and strategy.

"He's definitely an elite boxer - the smoothness, the way he maintains his composure and the fact that once he analyzes what a person brings into a ring, he literally goes after them and tries to take them apart," said Dan Campbell, national coaching director for USA Boxing and American coach for the Beijing Olympics.

"He's produced suddenly, this year, good punching power. I think that's going to take him a long way. The U.S. Nationals were a barometer of how far he has come. The team trials will be a barometer of where he really is."

Apart from boxing skills, there is nothing stereotypical about Rodriguez.

Polite, modest, understated, he looks like a wholesome suburban high school jock more than the nation's seventh- ranked amateur featherweight.

It's no accident he admires Oscar De La Hoya, champion of the straight arrows.

"That's exactly the way we look at him - as a matter of fact, we're getting ready to start a residential program in Colorado Springs after the Olympics. As long as he decides to remain an amateur, he's one of the people we're going to go after," Campbell said.

Rodriguez's success was years in the making. About three dozen members of the Rodriguez clan live in the Greeley area, bound by old-school values and a passion for boxing that Robert picked up naturally.

His father and coach, Jeff Rodriguez, is a commander with the Weld County Sheriff's Office, a job that helps shield his oldest son from Greeley's gangs.

During his down time, dwindling by the day, Rodriguez works on his car and draws.

"I draw a lot of old cars: Mustangs, Impalas, Camaros. About one a week," he said.

These days, though, boxing is a 2 4/7 preoccupation.

"Robert is a gym rat. He'd stay in the gym all day if we'd let him," his father said.

Stepping into the ring for the first time at age 7, after watching a De La Hoya fight, Rodriguez was hooked instantly. By 9, he says, he had the basics covered. At 11, he taught himself to box left-handed.

"I said, 'No, no, no, you're a right-handed fighter,' " Jeff Rodriguez said. "Now when he fights, you never know if he's coming at you right- or left-handed."

By 13, Rodriquez said, he felt comfortable formulating strategy.

"His first tournament was the Junior Olympics," Jeff Rodriguez said. "I figured we'd put him in it, he'd lose and it'd be out of his system. Well, he won the whole thing. I remember telling my wife, 'Are you ready for this ride?' "

In 2005, Rodriguez won a Junior Olympics national title at 101 pounds, earning a spot on the National Olympic Boxing Team, a training group for the 2008 Olympic team.

At the 2005 Cadet World Championships in Liverpool, England, he coolly kept his first opponent at bay with a slick jab, earning a debut victory that impressed Campbell, who travels with all USA Boxing teams to major international events.

"When you go to a world championships or the nationals or the senior division, the first thing that enters your mind is, 'Do I really belong here?' What I think he found is that he did belong there and that he could compete at this level," Campbell said.

"He's very poised. I've never seen him lose his composure."

Added Rodriguez, a student at Colorado High School in Greeley: "That's when I knew I really wanted to do something with it."

Rodriguez's composure was tested in other ways at the 2006 Aliyev Cup in Baku.

He finished fifth at 106 pounds, losing to runner-up Yevgeni Averin of Russia. Not bad, considering coaches told him it would be too dangerous to wear his USA apparel in Baku.

"It was kind of weird, not being able to wear what you want to wear," he said. "It kind of scares you."

In January, Rodriquez became eligible for senior competition, a rite of boxing passage that produces more broken careers than champions.

The sport, in fact, is full of young flashes who blaze briefly then fade into the pack - a path Rodriguez seemed to be following when he stumbled badly at the National Golden Gloves in April.

Up against it, Rodriguez needed to advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Championships in June to stay on track for an Olympic berth, a situation compounded by doubts about his decision to alter his style for the Olympic scoring system.

After years of aggressive boxing,

Rodriquez now was holding back, hoping to outpoint opponents with clever combinations instead of going on the attack.

Equally troubling, Rodriguez felt the pressure had been dialed up to a nearly intolerable level.

"My biggest fear is too much pressure, from my parents, family, fans, friends. I worry about (letting them down)," he said.

But in Rodriguez's biggest fight to date, he went back to basics, attacking Jimmy Maher full bore from the opening moments, forcing the referee to stop the first- round fight in the third round.

He advanced to the quarterfinals with a second-round decision against Charles Huerta. Though he lost on points to Shemuel Pagan in the quarterfinals, several promoters offered him professional contracts, impressed especially by his effort against Maher.

"We said, 'You know, this is boxing. It's a hunting business. Just let it go.' He let go and it was awesome," Jeff Rodriguez said.

Even if Rodriguez makes the Olympic team, he must survive an international qualifying event to clinch a spot in Beijing - a long-shot scenario for any boxer.

But as Rodriguez shifted into overdrive near the end of a recent workout, brimming with raw talent and single-mindedness, he looked like anything but what he is - a soft-spoken high school student.

"The only time I ever thought about quitting boxing was in (Azerbaijan)," he said. "I love this sport too much. It's an art, a science. I feel the angles when I'm out there. I feel so good."

Boxer next door

Robert Rodriguez is one of eight featherweights invited to compete at the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team Trials, but he also is a typical high school student.

• Favorite TV show: Wayans Brothers.

• Favorite movie: Grandma's Boy.

• Hobbies outside of boxing: Cars.

• Other sports played: Football, basketball, baseball and karate.

• Greatest strength in ring: "My mind and my jab."

• What do you like most about boxing: Traveling.

• Something interesting about you people don't know: "I am a good artist."

Usa Boxing

latimerc@RockyMountainNews.com

Back to Top