Horacio Rodriguez is a powerful featherweight grappler currently training out of Miami, Florida as part of Team Ronin. Rodriguez got an early introduction to the grappling side of things, starting with judo at the age of nine before moving on to wrestling - a sport he'd excel in, at age fourteen. A high school standout, Rodriguez would earn All-American honours as both a Freestyle (twice) and Greco-Roman wrestler, become a four-time National Qualifier, and finish three top times as a top three wrestler in the state (Florida). Upon graduating, Rodriguez decided to forego college to pursue a career as a state correctional officer. During that time however, he continued working on his wrestling abilities and did capture both the Freestyle and Greco-Roman Law Enforcement World Championships in 2004.

Rodriguez is a powerhouse featherweight who possesses a solid wrestling base to compliment his tremendous size and strength for the weight division. Despite standing just 5'5" tall, Rodriguez is an extremely thick 145 pound fighter who walks around at roughly 170 pounds between fights. In addition to his high school wrestling credentials, Rodriguez was also an avid power lifter who placed in state for weight lifting and he does enter the sport with a reputation of being an extremely powerful athlete. Suffice to say, Rodriguez' raw power and judo/wrestling backgrounds do provide for some strong takedowns and huge slams. He's definitely a most comfortable from top position, where he aggressively looks to work his ground and pound game. Rodriguez's BJJ and submission skills remain very green, as he only truly began paying attention to those areas after he suffered an armbar loss in early 2009. Due to the lack of depth in his ground game, Rodriguez has been in compromising situations and put himself in trouble at times, and will need to continue working on expanding his jiu jitsu knowledge.

Rodriguez' striking is still very much a work in progress. He's shown he'll use his leg kicks and punches, but his intentions are no secret and he will look to shoot and take the fight to the mat whenever he has a chance. Tough, fully committed to his career and training full time, Rodriguez is a powerful athlete whose shown dedication to his craft, and with continued training he does possess the raw talent to develop into a competitive MMA striker.