Green puts Northwest boxing title on the line

Vancouver boxer Virgil Green will attempt to maintain the Northwest Junior Welterweight Championship on Saturday in the main event of Rumble at the Reef at Silver Reef Casino in Ferndale.

Moris Rodriguez from Fresno, Calif., will be the opponent as Green fights for the first time since January. In his last outing, Green won by technical knockout in the fifth round over Guillermo Delgadillo in a fight at Little Creek Casino in Shelton.

Green, 25, has 8 wins and 2 losses as a professional boxer. He called the seven-month search for an opponent “probably one of the most frustrating things I’ve endured in boxing.”

Rodriguez, 24, is 4-4-1 as a professional. He has one win by knockout and two by technical knockout, though he has lost four of his last five bouts.

Leonard Gabriel, who coaches Green at Fisticuffs Gym in Vancouver, said Rodriguez’s record is deceiving because the Californian has fought against top-fight opponents including several former Olympians.

Green said he focuses more on his own skills than he does on preparing for specific opponents.

“He’s going to do the same thing everybody else does when I start moving, when I start putting my jab on him,” Green said. “I don’t train to react to a fighter. I make them react to what I’m doing.”

Gabriel said the long wait between fights happened because there aren’t fighters in the Northwest who are willing to challenge Green. Green admits it is frustrating that he isn’t recognized yet beyond the Northwest as an up and coming 140-pound boxer.

“When I win this, (promoters) won’t be able to ignore me,” Green said.

For ticket information, visit silverreefcasino.com.

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