Written by: Alex Kut of KEA Boxing Promotions

Juan “The Beast” Rodriguez, Jr. returns to national television tonight when he faces Taras Shelestyuk on ESPN2 Friday Night Fights in Corona, CA. The fight will be the co main event alongside of Petr Petrov (35-4-2, 16 KOs) who faces former world champion Gamaliel Diaz (39-11-3, 18 KOs) for the NABO & NABA lightweight titles. The card is promoted by Banner Boxing and Thompson Boxing.

Rodriguez, who now holds a professional record of 12-1 (5 KOs) currently resides in Union City, NJ and has been training with “Luckey” at Ringside Gym in Jersey City for the past year. Rodriguez also just came back from Florida only a few weeks ago where he was in training camp with Keith “One Time” Thurman. Rodriguez was Thurman’s main sparring partner for 6 weeks. The Rodriguez camp stated that they learned a lot from the newly crowned WBA champion.

Rodriguez also comes off from a win against Greg Jackson who is now 5-1 of Philadelphia back in late October in North Bergen, NJ. When asked how Rodriguez feels about the fight tonight and fighting on national television once again he says “It’s been a great two months of camp. I didn’t have to get ready for this fight, I was already ready! I am in the best shape of my life and I am ready to show the world that my last televised fight was a fluke!” Rodriguez is promoted by Andre Kut’s KEA Boxing Promotions.

Taras Shelestyuk who holds a professional record of 11-0 (8Kos) is originally from the Ukraine, and is currently training under the watchful eye of Freddie Roach at Wild Card Boxing Gym in Los Angeles, California. Shelestyuk is mainly recognized for his Bronze Medal he won in the 2012 Olympic Games.

You can follow Juan “The Beast” Rodriguez on Twitter @thebeastjuan or on Facebook on his fan page @Juan The Beast Rodriguez.