Ronnie Shields: “Once Erislandy Lara clears out 154 he’s going to have to go up to 160 to challenge the big boys”
Exclusive Interview by Geoffrey Ciani - I was recently afforded the opportunity to have a nice discussion with world class trainer Ronnie Shields, whose fighter Erislandy Lara scored an impressive victory last weekend against Freddy Hernandez. Shields spoke about Lara’s performance, and also shared his views on a potential eliminator bout between Lara and Vanes Martirosyan. Additionally he provided his opinion on the prospects of having an eight man tournament in the 154 pound weight class, and how he believes Lara would fare against pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Junior. He also spoke about the upcoming heavyweight championship bout between Wladimir Klitschko and Tony Thompson, as well as the upcoming unification match between Nonito Donaire and Jeffrey Mathebula this Saturday. Here is what Ronnie Shields had to say:
GEOFFREY CIANI: Hello everyone. This is Geoffrey Ciani from East Side Boxing and I am joined by world class trainer Ronnie Shields. How’s everything going today, Ronnie?
RONNIE SHIELDS: Everything is doing great man! I had a great gym in today, so everything is looking up.
CIANI: Good! Good to hear. Now Ronnie, your fighter Erislandy Lara just beat Freddy Hernandez this past weekend. I’m wondering if you could tell the fans out there how you would evaluate his performance?
SHIELDS: Oh man! I give him a 10 because he did everything that I asked him to do. The thing that people really don’t understand is that we only had like three and a half weeks to train for this fight, because that’s when the fight was made. It was about three and a half weeks before the fight, so it didn’t give us a whole lot of time. But you know Freddy Hernandez came. He’s a good strong challenger and he put up a great fight, but Lara was just too much for him.
***CLICK PLAYER TO LISTEN TO RONNIE SHIELDS
(running time – 19:53)
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CIANI: Now even though Lara won wide on my scorecard, it did appear that Hernandez made it so that it wasn’t easy the whole way through, and it was kind of a fight where Lara was actually deducted a point at one point in the seventh round for a headbutt. There was a lot of rough house tactics involved at points during the fight. What did you think of the nature of the fight with Freddy Hernandez?
SHIELDS: Well you know afterwards when I looked back at the fight, I heard Freddy Hernandez’s corner telling him to step on his foot, hit him on the back of the head, and all of that dirty stuff. I mean you know boxing doesn’t need that. I think the Commission should look at the tape and listen to what the corner is telling him to do all these dirty tactics, and possibly suspend his corner because boxing doesn’t need that. You know the guy was hitting him below the belt, he kept hitting Lara behind the head, he was hitting Lara with elbows, and he was doing all kinds of stuff to Lara. And you know it pissed him off at one point, but still, I just told him in the corner to keep boxing, to keep his head, and he was winning the fight easily to me. I just have to go by what I see. I just told him not to lose his head and to keep boxing the guy, and don’t worry about what the guy is doing. Don’t let the guy pull him into something that’s not warranted. So he did. He listened. He boxed really good and look, in the ninth and tenth round I mean he really he beat Hernandez up. He took the fight to him. He just let him know, “Look! I’m not a chump. I’m a guy that to beat me, you have to come in and you have to take it from me”. Lara just completely outclassed Freddy Hernandez.
CIANI: I myself was very impressed with Lara, and I thought his lead right hook was a true work of art the way he was delivering that. A lot of fans agree with me and they seem to have been very impressed with him. But then there are a lot of fans out there saying they don’t understand what the big deal is and they weren’t overly impressed. My question for you is, why do you think fans are so split on his performance in terms of how good it was?
SHIELDS: Well I mean I really don’t know why, but the thing about it is they got to ask themselves why don’t the big guys want to fight him? Why don’t the champions and everybody when it’s time to fight this kid, nobody wants to fight him? You know that’s the question that they have to ask. It’s not Erislandy Lara who’s holding back. It’s the fighters holding back from trying to fight him. The thing about it as far as the right hook is concerned, you know that’s something we’ve been working on the last month. I’ve been working on him leading off with the right hook, because you really haven’t seen that in his repertoire if you look at all of his fights. You know we were just trying to show Freddy Hernandez something different. Look! Lara is a world class fighter, and he’s the kind of guy he gets up for whoever is going to be in front of him. So the reason they probably aren’t impressed is because they haven’t really seen him fight the big names, besides Paul Williams. But you saw what he did to Paul Williams! That tells a whole lot right there. That’s why a lot of the guys that are champions don’t want to fight him, because they know it’s a difficult fight for them. He just showed you a flash of what he can do on last Saturday night. That was just a flash of what he could do against a top ten guy. But the reason these other guys don’t want to fight him is because they know he’s going to have time to prepare for all of the good guys, like Canelo Alvarez, or K-9 Bundrage, or James Kirkland. You know anybody who they put in front of him, it doesn’t make a difference. You know we are willing and able to fight anybody in the world! It doesn’t make a difference.
CIANI: Now Ronnie, some observers being critical of Lara are noting the fact that welterweight Andre Berto was able to stop Hernandez in one round. I’m just curious, what would you have to say to the fans out there who are making a big deal of that point?
SHIELDS: Well you know here’s the thing. Styles make fights, and the thing about was that people don’t realize that Freddy Hernandez, that was his last fight at welterweight also because he couldn’t make the weight. He drained himself trying to make 147 pounds. He was a weak guy going in against a natural 147 pounder in Berto. Berto caught him with a good shot and knocked him out. I mean it’s simply said. Anybody can get caught. Anybody can get knocked out. So if they’re looking at that still, why don’t the big guys come in and say, “You know this guy’s not a big puncher. Let’s fight him!” Still everybody is turning us down. So I think that speaks for itself. I mean if you look at the fight, he beat the crap out of Freddy Hernandez! I mean look! He beat him worse than Berto could ever think about beating him. Berto hit him with one good shot and knocked him out. That can happen to anybody at any given moment in this sport. It happens.
CIANI: Now the WBC just recently ordered a final eliminator bout between Lara and Vanes Martirosyan. I’m curious what your thoughts are on Vanes as a fighter, and what do you think about this matchup as an eliminator for Canelo Alvarez?
SHIELDS: Well I think Vanes is a really good fighter. You know I trained Vanes for a little over a year a few years ago. He’s a really good boxer, but the WBC ordered this fight about six months ago—well, it might not have been that long ago. Maybe it was about four months ago the WBC ordered this fight, and Vanes turned it down. He said unless he got a signed contract saying Canelo Alvarez will definitely fight the winner then he wasn’t going to fight Lara. Now I read today where he said that now he wants to fight Lara. If everybody is looking at that fight that he fought last week, and he did that on three and a half weeks notice, he’s going to have a lot of time to prepare for whoever is next. If it’s Vanes, hey! Let’s do it! We’ve been wanting to do this fight for a very long time now. So now if he’s saying he wants the fight, hey let’s do it! I mean all you got to do is sign your name on the line. That’s it. Sign your name on the dotted line and the fight will be done, but he’s going to find out why Erislandy Lara is the most avoided fighter in boxing right now.
CIANI: Let’s talk about Canelo Alvarez a little bit. His last fight was May 5 against Sugar Shane Mosley. What did you think of his performance that night?
SHIELDS: Well I didn’t think it was his best performance, but I think people still don’t realize that Shane Mosley was a very good fighter. He was a smart fighter. There was a lot of times when he was pulling away from shots, and I don’t think Canelo has ever seen a guy do that before—he was standing right in front of him and just pulling away from shots, but Shane just couldn’t pull the trigger on him. But I was impressed because despite all of the flaws that he has, he fought a good fight and I think he hurt Shane a couple of times but he just couldn’t finish him. You got to understand they offered Lara the fight against him also. Everybody is saying Canelo Alvarez wouldn’t want to fight Erislandy Lara, and I beg to differ. I think the fighter really wants to fight the best guys out there, whether it’s Lara, whether it’s Vanes, whether it’s Kirkland, whether it’s Angulo—I think Canelo really wants the fight, but I think it’s the management and I think it’s also his promoter. I think they just want to try to hold off and let this kid make as much money as he can, hoping that by the time he does fight one of those good guys out there, that he has enough confidence and enough skills to be able to compete with those guys. So I really don’t think it’s Canelo Alvarez. You know he’s a fighter man, and I had him go up against Kermit Cintron and he really impressed me a lot. I’m really impressed by him, but just like my guy Erislandy Lara feels that he’s the best guy. It’s a wait and see thing, but I am—I’m really, really impressed with Canelo Alvarez.
CIANI: Now in terms of his development and in terms of him improving as a young champion, are you seeing a lot of improvement in him yourself?
SHIELDS: Oh yes I am! I’m seeing a lot of improvement in Canelo. You know look, he is a strong kid, and he is a lot quicker and faster than people give him credit for. When I studied him for the Cintron fight, I really didn’t think he was that fast. On tape he looks real slow. He doesn’t look like he has much power. But when you see this kid live and in color, trust me, this kid can punch and he’s really fast! It really surprised me. You know look, this kid has forty-something fights already because he turned professional at a very young age. But he’s still in the learning process. He’s a champion who’s still learning how to keep the championship. And I understand that you can’t put him in there with all the best fighters right now. Really and truly I understand that, but at the same time, if he wasn’t ready to fight the best fighters in the world then he had no business fighting for the world title.
CIANI: Oscar De La Hoya recently mentioned that he would be in favor of an eight man tournament involving some of the bigger names at the 154 pound weight class. I’m curious, would you be in favor of such a tournament and would you be in favor of Lara being a participant in some type of tournament like this?
SHIELDS: Well you know I’ve thought about this. I really have thought about this, and I think it would be great for boxing only if the champions are involved. If the champions are not involved it doesn’t make sense to have a tournament when, what would you get out of the tournament? You know if you can do like the Super Six did, all of the champions got involved in it. So you have to involve the champions in order for a tournament to make sense, because when you come out of that tournament that means you have one champion, an undisputed champion like boxing is supposed to have—only one champion in the division. If you can get all of the champions involved in the division to fight in the tournament along with the contenders that would be involved in it, then I think you would come out with one champion. I think it would be great for boxing, because when people look at the 154 pound division, they say, “You know what? That’s the only division in boxing that has one champion”. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense.
CIANI: Just to get your perspective on where Lara is right now, if he was to get an unlikely opportunity against pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Junior, what would you think of his chances?
SHIELDS: Oh man! I would think his chances are like 70-30, with 70 being for him and 30 being for Floyd just for the simple reason that look. Floyd is a great fighter, but Floyd is a great fighter fighting guys like a Miguel Cotto, who’s past his prime, and like a too small guy like Marquez who he beat. Now look, Floyd is a good fighter but this is a different competition with Erislandy Lara. We’re talking about a bigger guy who’s just a natural 154 pounder. There is no way in the world in my heart I know that Floyd can beat a guy like Erislandy Lara, just for the simple reason that Lara is so much smarter than everybody Floyd has ever fought in his career. When you have that, and plus he’s a bigger guy and a stronger guy, I don’t see how Floyd would be able to keep him off of him.
CIANI: Sticking with Floyd for a minute, you mentioned his last fight against Miguel Cotto. What did you think of that fight Ronnie, and were there any surprises for you in the way that fight played out?
SHIELDS: There weren’t any surprises for me. I thought Floyd did the right thing by fighting Miguel Cotto at 154 pounds. That’s to prove that he is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. He did that, but I still thought Miguel was a little bit slow, you know too slow for Floyd. He put up a good fight. I think at the beginning Floyd just fought the wrong fight in the beginning by trying to lean on the ropes and not taking it to Miguel. But I think at the end with Miguel, you know he got so tired by the eighth round that Floyd just had his way with him. But I really have a lot of respect for Miguel Cotto because he fought all of the best guys in the world, and I respect a fighter like that.
CIANI: Changing things up here a little bit Ronnie, there are two upcoming fights this weekend I would like to get your opinion on. One of those fights is a heavyweight championship fight. It’s a rematch between Wladimir Klitschko and Tony Thompson, and I was wondering if you could give the fans out there your trainer’s perspective on that matchup?
SHIELDS: Well you know I think it’s a great fight. I mean I really do. I think Tony Thompson is one of the only guys at heavyweight who has a chance to beat either one of the Klitschkos. I saw the first fight. I don’t know what happened with Tony, but he just kind of faded out. But I think now he really knows what to expect, because it is a world title fight. I think the first time, you know he had been sparring with Klitschko before, so maybe he thought he got the best of him in sparring, but that is completely different when you put the smaller gloves on, no head gear, and you have a huge crowd. I think now Tony knows what’s in front of him, and I think it’s easier for Tony to prepare for Klitschko than Klitschko for him. So I’m going to go with the mild upset on this one, and I’m going to say Tony Thompson wins a very close decision.
CIANI: Now another big fight coming up this weekend, it’s a unification bout in the super bantamweight division between Nonito Donaire and Jeffrey Mathebula. I am wondering if you could give the fans out there your take on that one?
SHIELDS: Well I like Donaire in this one, just for the simple reason that this can punch with both hands. I mean he is a very smart fighter. I don’t think he’s the best fighter in that division, because I think Guillermo Rigondeaux is the best fighter in that division, but look, both of these guys are champions and it’s going to be a tough fight. But I think in the later rounds Donaire’s power is going to be a little bit too much, and I pick him by late TKO.
CIANI: Going back to Erislandy Lara, he’s 29 years old now. In your opinion Ronnie, what can fans expect from him over the course of the next three years?
SHIELDS: Well I think first of all, if Vanes is man enough to step up and sign the contract I think you’re going to see him put a real boxing lesson on Vanes Martirosyan, and that’s going to really scare the champions off, but sooner or later they’re going to have to step up and fight him. I think within the next two years you’re going to see this kid as middleweight champion of the world.
CIANI: So you think that he will develop and grow into a full-fledged middleweight within the next two years?
SHIELDS: Without a doubt! He has no problems at 154 pounds. He’s a natural 154 pounder right now, but I think after he cleans out the division at 154 there will be nothing left for him at 154, so he would have to go up to 160 to get the big fights. You got to understand something about this kid. This kid wants to challenge everybody. He’s not afraid to fight anybody. So sooner or later, once Erislandy Lara clears out 154 he’s going to have to go up to 160 to challenge the big boys.
CIANI: Ronnie, I have one final question for you. Is there anything else you would like to say to all of the boxing fans out there and all of the readers of East Side Boxing?
SHIELDS: Absolutely! I just want to say keep an eye out on Erislandy Lara because one day he’s going to clean out the 154 pound division, and once he goes up to middleweight I have another kid named Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo. This kid is going to come up and take over for Erislandy Lara once he goes up to middleweight. So be looking out for Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo.
CIANI: Ronnie, it was an absolute pleasure getting the opportunity to speak to you once again. I thank you for your time, and I wish you the best of luck going forward.
SHIELDS: Thank you very much, and you have a great day.
Exclusive Interview by Geoffrey Ciani - I was recently afforded the opportunity to have a nice discussion with world class trainer Ronnie Shields, whose fighter Erislandy Lara scored an impressive victory last weekend against Freddy Hernandez. Shields spoke about Lara’s performance, and also shared his views on a potential eliminator bout between Lara and Vanes Martirosyan. Additionally he provided his opinion on the prospects of having an eight man tournament in the 154 pound weight class, and how he believes Lara would fare against pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Junior. He also spoke about the upcoming heavyweight championship bout between Wladimir Klitschko and Tony Thompson, as well as the upcoming unification match between Nonito Donaire and Jeffrey Mathebula this Saturday. Here is what Ronnie Shields had to say:
GEOFFREY CIANI: Hello everyone. This is Geoffrey Ciani from East Side Boxing and I am joined by world class trainer Ronnie Shields. How’s everything going today, Ronnie?
RONNIE SHIELDS: Everything is doing great man! I had a great gym in today, so everything is looking up.
CIANI: Good! Good to hear. Now Ronnie, your fighter Erislandy Lara just beat Freddy Hernandez this past weekend. I’m wondering if you could tell the fans out there how you would evaluate his performance?
SHIELDS: Oh man! I give him a 10 because he did everything that I asked him to do. The thing that people really don’t understand is that we only had like three and a half weeks to train for this fight, because that’s when the fight was made. It was about three and a half weeks before the fight, so it didn’t give us a whole lot of time. But you know Freddy Hernandez came. He’s a good strong challenger and he put up a great fight, but Lara was just too much for him.
***CLICK PLAYER TO LISTEN TO RONNIE SHIELDS
(running time – 19:53)
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CIANI: Now even though Lara won wide on my scorecard, it did appear that Hernandez made it so that it wasn’t easy the whole way through, and it was kind of a fight where Lara was actually deducted a point at one point in the seventh round for a headbutt. There was a lot of rough house tactics involved at points during the fight. What did you think of the nature of the fight with Freddy Hernandez?
SHIELDS: Well you know afterwards when I looked back at the fight, I heard Freddy Hernandez’s corner telling him to step on his foot, hit him on the back of the head, and all of that dirty stuff. I mean you know boxing doesn’t need that. I think the Commission should look at the tape and listen to what the corner is telling him to do all these dirty tactics, and possibly suspend his corner because boxing doesn’t need that. You know the guy was hitting him below the belt, he kept hitting Lara behind the head, he was hitting Lara with elbows, and he was doing all kinds of stuff to Lara. And you know it pissed him off at one point, but still, I just told him in the corner to keep boxing, to keep his head, and he was winning the fight easily to me. I just have to go by what I see. I just told him not to lose his head and to keep boxing the guy, and don’t worry about what the guy is doing. Don’t let the guy pull him into something that’s not warranted. So he did. He listened. He boxed really good and look, in the ninth and tenth round I mean he really he beat Hernandez up. He took the fight to him. He just let him know, “Look! I’m not a chump. I’m a guy that to beat me, you have to come in and you have to take it from me”. Lara just completely outclassed Freddy Hernandez.
CIANI: I myself was very impressed with Lara, and I thought his lead right hook was a true work of art the way he was delivering that. A lot of fans agree with me and they seem to have been very impressed with him. But then there are a lot of fans out there saying they don’t understand what the big deal is and they weren’t overly impressed. My question for you is, why do you think fans are so split on his performance in terms of how good it was?
SHIELDS: Well I mean I really don’t know why, but the thing about it is they got to ask themselves why don’t the big guys want to fight him? Why don’t the champions and everybody when it’s time to fight this kid, nobody wants to fight him? You know that’s the question that they have to ask. It’s not Erislandy Lara who’s holding back. It’s the fighters holding back from trying to fight him. The thing about it as far as the right hook is concerned, you know that’s something we’ve been working on the last month. I’ve been working on him leading off with the right hook, because you really haven’t seen that in his repertoire if you look at all of his fights. You know we were just trying to show Freddy Hernandez something different. Look! Lara is a world class fighter, and he’s the kind of guy he gets up for whoever is going to be in front of him. So the reason they probably aren’t impressed is because they haven’t really seen him fight the big names, besides Paul Williams. But you saw what he did to Paul Williams! That tells a whole lot right there. That’s why a lot of the guys that are champions don’t want to fight him, because they know it’s a difficult fight for them. He just showed you a flash of what he can do on last Saturday night. That was just a flash of what he could do against a top ten guy. But the reason these other guys don’t want to fight him is because they know he’s going to have time to prepare for all of the good guys, like Canelo Alvarez, or K-9 Bundrage, or James Kirkland. You know anybody who they put in front of him, it doesn’t make a difference. You know we are willing and able to fight anybody in the world! It doesn’t make a difference.
CIANI: Now Ronnie, some observers being critical of Lara are noting the fact that welterweight Andre Berto was able to stop Hernandez in one round. I’m just curious, what would you have to say to the fans out there who are making a big deal of that point?
SHIELDS: Well you know here’s the thing. Styles make fights, and the thing about was that people don’t realize that Freddy Hernandez, that was his last fight at welterweight also because he couldn’t make the weight. He drained himself trying to make 147 pounds. He was a weak guy going in against a natural 147 pounder in Berto. Berto caught him with a good shot and knocked him out. I mean it’s simply said. Anybody can get caught. Anybody can get knocked out. So if they’re looking at that still, why don’t the big guys come in and say, “You know this guy’s not a big puncher. Let’s fight him!” Still everybody is turning us down. So I think that speaks for itself. I mean if you look at the fight, he beat the crap out of Freddy Hernandez! I mean look! He beat him worse than Berto could ever think about beating him. Berto hit him with one good shot and knocked him out. That can happen to anybody at any given moment in this sport. It happens.
CIANI: Now the WBC just recently ordered a final eliminator bout between Lara and Vanes Martirosyan. I’m curious what your thoughts are on Vanes as a fighter, and what do you think about this matchup as an eliminator for Canelo Alvarez?
SHIELDS: Well I think Vanes is a really good fighter. You know I trained Vanes for a little over a year a few years ago. He’s a really good boxer, but the WBC ordered this fight about six months ago—well, it might not have been that long ago. Maybe it was about four months ago the WBC ordered this fight, and Vanes turned it down. He said unless he got a signed contract saying Canelo Alvarez will definitely fight the winner then he wasn’t going to fight Lara. Now I read today where he said that now he wants to fight Lara. If everybody is looking at that fight that he fought last week, and he did that on three and a half weeks notice, he’s going to have a lot of time to prepare for whoever is next. If it’s Vanes, hey! Let’s do it! We’ve been wanting to do this fight for a very long time now. So now if he’s saying he wants the fight, hey let’s do it! I mean all you got to do is sign your name on the line. That’s it. Sign your name on the dotted line and the fight will be done, but he’s going to find out why Erislandy Lara is the most avoided fighter in boxing right now.
CIANI: Let’s talk about Canelo Alvarez a little bit. His last fight was May 5 against Sugar Shane Mosley. What did you think of his performance that night?
SHIELDS: Well I didn’t think it was his best performance, but I think people still don’t realize that Shane Mosley was a very good fighter. He was a smart fighter. There was a lot of times when he was pulling away from shots, and I don’t think Canelo has ever seen a guy do that before—he was standing right in front of him and just pulling away from shots, but Shane just couldn’t pull the trigger on him. But I was impressed because despite all of the flaws that he has, he fought a good fight and I think he hurt Shane a couple of times but he just couldn’t finish him. You got to understand they offered Lara the fight against him also. Everybody is saying Canelo Alvarez wouldn’t want to fight Erislandy Lara, and I beg to differ. I think the fighter really wants to fight the best guys out there, whether it’s Lara, whether it’s Vanes, whether it’s Kirkland, whether it’s Angulo—I think Canelo really wants the fight, but I think it’s the management and I think it’s also his promoter. I think they just want to try to hold off and let this kid make as much money as he can, hoping that by the time he does fight one of those good guys out there, that he has enough confidence and enough skills to be able to compete with those guys. So I really don’t think it’s Canelo Alvarez. You know he’s a fighter man, and I had him go up against Kermit Cintron and he really impressed me a lot. I’m really impressed by him, but just like my guy Erislandy Lara feels that he’s the best guy. It’s a wait and see thing, but I am—I’m really, really impressed with Canelo Alvarez.
CIANI: Now in terms of his development and in terms of him improving as a young champion, are you seeing a lot of improvement in him yourself?
SHIELDS: Oh yes I am! I’m seeing a lot of improvement in Canelo. You know look, he is a strong kid, and he is a lot quicker and faster than people give him credit for. When I studied him for the Cintron fight, I really didn’t think he was that fast. On tape he looks real slow. He doesn’t look like he has much power. But when you see this kid live and in color, trust me, this kid can punch and he’s really fast! It really surprised me. You know look, this kid has forty-something fights already because he turned professional at a very young age. But he’s still in the learning process. He’s a champion who’s still learning how to keep the championship. And I understand that you can’t put him in there with all the best fighters right now. Really and truly I understand that, but at the same time, if he wasn’t ready to fight the best fighters in the world then he had no business fighting for the world title.
CIANI: Oscar De La Hoya recently mentioned that he would be in favor of an eight man tournament involving some of the bigger names at the 154 pound weight class. I’m curious, would you be in favor of such a tournament and would you be in favor of Lara being a participant in some type of tournament like this?
SHIELDS: Well you know I’ve thought about this. I really have thought about this, and I think it would be great for boxing only if the champions are involved. If the champions are not involved it doesn’t make sense to have a tournament when, what would you get out of the tournament? You know if you can do like the Super Six did, all of the champions got involved in it. So you have to involve the champions in order for a tournament to make sense, because when you come out of that tournament that means you have one champion, an undisputed champion like boxing is supposed to have—only one champion in the division. If you can get all of the champions involved in the division to fight in the tournament along with the contenders that would be involved in it, then I think you would come out with one champion. I think it would be great for boxing, because when people look at the 154 pound division, they say, “You know what? That’s the only division in boxing that has one champion”. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense.
CIANI: Just to get your perspective on where Lara is right now, if he was to get an unlikely opportunity against pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Junior, what would you think of his chances?
SHIELDS: Oh man! I would think his chances are like 70-30, with 70 being for him and 30 being for Floyd just for the simple reason that look. Floyd is a great fighter, but Floyd is a great fighter fighting guys like a Miguel Cotto, who’s past his prime, and like a too small guy like Marquez who he beat. Now look, Floyd is a good fighter but this is a different competition with Erislandy Lara. We’re talking about a bigger guy who’s just a natural 154 pounder. There is no way in the world in my heart I know that Floyd can beat a guy like Erislandy Lara, just for the simple reason that Lara is so much smarter than everybody Floyd has ever fought in his career. When you have that, and plus he’s a bigger guy and a stronger guy, I don’t see how Floyd would be able to keep him off of him.
CIANI: Sticking with Floyd for a minute, you mentioned his last fight against Miguel Cotto. What did you think of that fight Ronnie, and were there any surprises for you in the way that fight played out?
SHIELDS: There weren’t any surprises for me. I thought Floyd did the right thing by fighting Miguel Cotto at 154 pounds. That’s to prove that he is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. He did that, but I still thought Miguel was a little bit slow, you know too slow for Floyd. He put up a good fight. I think at the beginning Floyd just fought the wrong fight in the beginning by trying to lean on the ropes and not taking it to Miguel. But I think at the end with Miguel, you know he got so tired by the eighth round that Floyd just had his way with him. But I really have a lot of respect for Miguel Cotto because he fought all of the best guys in the world, and I respect a fighter like that.
CIANI: Changing things up here a little bit Ronnie, there are two upcoming fights this weekend I would like to get your opinion on. One of those fights is a heavyweight championship fight. It’s a rematch between Wladimir Klitschko and Tony Thompson, and I was wondering if you could give the fans out there your trainer’s perspective on that matchup?
SHIELDS: Well you know I think it’s a great fight. I mean I really do. I think Tony Thompson is one of the only guys at heavyweight who has a chance to beat either one of the Klitschkos. I saw the first fight. I don’t know what happened with Tony, but he just kind of faded out. But I think now he really knows what to expect, because it is a world title fight. I think the first time, you know he had been sparring with Klitschko before, so maybe he thought he got the best of him in sparring, but that is completely different when you put the smaller gloves on, no head gear, and you have a huge crowd. I think now Tony knows what’s in front of him, and I think it’s easier for Tony to prepare for Klitschko than Klitschko for him. So I’m going to go with the mild upset on this one, and I’m going to say Tony Thompson wins a very close decision.
CIANI: Now another big fight coming up this weekend, it’s a unification bout in the super bantamweight division between Nonito Donaire and Jeffrey Mathebula. I am wondering if you could give the fans out there your take on that one?
SHIELDS: Well I like Donaire in this one, just for the simple reason that this can punch with both hands. I mean he is a very smart fighter. I don’t think he’s the best fighter in that division, because I think Guillermo Rigondeaux is the best fighter in that division, but look, both of these guys are champions and it’s going to be a tough fight. But I think in the later rounds Donaire’s power is going to be a little bit too much, and I pick him by late TKO.
CIANI: Going back to Erislandy Lara, he’s 29 years old now. In your opinion Ronnie, what can fans expect from him over the course of the next three years?
SHIELDS: Well I think first of all, if Vanes is man enough to step up and sign the contract I think you’re going to see him put a real boxing lesson on Vanes Martirosyan, and that’s going to really scare the champions off, but sooner or later they’re going to have to step up and fight him. I think within the next two years you’re going to see this kid as middleweight champion of the world.
CIANI: So you think that he will develop and grow into a full-fledged middleweight within the next two years?
SHIELDS: Without a doubt! He has no problems at 154 pounds. He’s a natural 154 pounder right now, but I think after he cleans out the division at 154 there will be nothing left for him at 154, so he would have to go up to 160 to get the big fights. You got to understand something about this kid. This kid wants to challenge everybody. He’s not afraid to fight anybody. So sooner or later, once Erislandy Lara clears out 154 he’s going to have to go up to 160 to challenge the big boys.
CIANI: Ronnie, I have one final question for you. Is there anything else you would like to say to all of the boxing fans out there and all of the readers of East Side Boxing?
SHIELDS: Absolutely! I just want to say keep an eye out on Erislandy Lara because one day he’s going to clean out the 154 pound division, and once he goes up to middleweight I have another kid named Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo. This kid is going to come up and take over for Erislandy Lara once he goes up to middleweight. So be looking out for Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo.
CIANI: Ronnie, it was an absolute pleasure getting the opportunity to speak to you once again. I thank you for your time, and I wish you the best of luck going forward.
SHIELDS: Thank you very much, and you have a great day.
