Trainer Ronnie Shields knows the boxing scene as well as anyone in the sport, having been both a contender as a fighter and one of the top trainers in the game. Shields currently trains middleweight contender Jermall Charlo, who is the mandatory challenger for Gennady Golvokin. Shields hopes his fighter will get a shot at the middleweight champion before the end of the year.
In part 2 of my “On The Ropes” boxing radio interview with Ronnie Shields, I discuss with him the Canelo Alvarez drug test situation. I get his views on Canelo’s tainted meat excuse and his thoughts on the chances that a rematch still happening. Shields also talks about the heavyweight division and gives his Wilder vs. Joshua prediction. Additionally, Ronnie talks about the upcoming Pacquiao-Mattyhsse fight. Here is what Ronnie Shields has to say.
Jenna J: Ronnie, what are your thoughts on the Canelo Alvarez situation with him testing positive for a banned substance and having the Golovkin fight get canceled? Do you believe his excuse of tainted meat or have you heard that before?
Ronnie Shields: Well I’ve heard that a lot of times before and the thing about it is, every fighter has to be accountable for his or her own actions. We in the sport know that we have to take drug tests and you know some of the other fighters from Mexico tested positive for the same thing then why would you go out and buy that meat anyway and take a chance knowing that you have to take drug tests? You can’t just blame it on the meat.
All you have to do is look at Canelo and you can see it’s suspicious when you look at him. All you have to do is put pictures from about three years ago or two years ago and look at him now and see how big he’s gotten. Look you can see the guy is on drugs, you can see he’s dirty, everybody in the world can see it.
If the proper people don’t take action against this, then boxing is going to be in serious trouble because they’re allowing these guys to take drugs and then they only want to give him like a six month suspension, what’s that? Six months is nothing.
All they are doing is putting it off until another Mexican holiday so they can still make the money, it’s all about the money. If it was anybody else who was lesser known than a guy like Canelo Alvarez, they would be suspended for two years, maybe banned for life.
Jenna J: Do you think the rematch might not happen not with the whole mess this caused or do you think it happens later on?
Ronnie Shields: I think it gets pushed back to September and I know ‘GGG’ is mad, he’s really mad that he’s saying he has proof that Canelo has been taking drugs. I think if he does have proof he needs to send that to all the boxing organizations and he needs to send it to people in Las Vegas, the commission.
If he does have proof of it and he’s mad as hell, do you pass up a big payday or do you suspend a drug cheat? If you are in this sport you have to help the sport, you can’t worry about the money. Something it’s to do the moral thing that is right in order to help this sport, so we’re going to see what’s going to happen.
Jenna J: You worked with heavyweight fighters like Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield in the past. What do you think of this era’s heavyweight division with champions like Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua?
Ronnie Shields: I think it’s going to be interesting now, I think people understand now that the heavyweight division is getting hot again. Finally, we got guys that are bringing the excitement back to the division and I think we need one heavyweight champion right now.
I think Anthony Joshua should fight Deontay Wilder in his next fight. Both guys just fought, they both won, they both looked okay, so now is the time people want to see one heavyweight champion before one of these guys get knocked out.
Jenna J: If Wilder and Joshua end up meeting in the ring, who would you be favoring?
Ronnie Shields: Just from looking at both of their fights recently, I would have to favor Wilder. I think that Wilder with the length that he has and the power that he has, Joshua is more of a robotic type of fighter, he stands up still, his jab is really nothing, while Wilder has a really strong jab. Wilder is more fluid with his punches than Joshua is, so for me I’d favor Deontay Wilder.
Jenna J: Manny Pacquiao will return from a one year layoff and face off against Lucas Matthysse in July, What do you think of that matchup?
Ronnie Shields: I like the fight, I think Manny Pacquiao has a lot to prove to himself as to whether he should continue to fight or not. Matthysse did not look to good to me in his last fight, he was looking like he was having a lot of problems and because of that, a lot of people are gonna pick Manny Pacquiao to win, although Pacquiao didn’t look so good in his last fight either.
I think because of the names and only because of the names this is a very interesting fight. It’s for an interim world title, which doesn’t really mean a whole lot. But to people in Malaysia it means a whole lot, that they are fighting for the interim world championship. I really like Pacquiao in the fight because I just think he’s smarter and the guy is always in shape. I think because Matthysse had so many problems with the last guy he fought you have to favor Manny Pacquiao.
It’s very true. He grew big quick, he looked ripped. He is on the juice. GGG should fight someone else and forget this cheater.
So Canelo purposely took a “voluntary” test to get caught. How come he never failed the past test? People don’t take voluntary test when they know they are dirty.
Pretty simple man he’s never been tested outside of camp…you can say he’s enrolled in 365day testing but it just doesn’t happen, which isn’t his fault and many other boxer are in the same situation( unless someone is gonna pay for it’s not gonna happen,drug testing normally comes out of the fighters purse, he doesn’t have a purse until he signs to fight)… really anyone with any knowledge of peds knows how to play the system
They started random testing 2 weeks earlier than they normally do. That’s how he got caught.
GGG does the same advanced VADA testing as Wilder. They both pay VADA extra money to start testing them and their opponents as soon as a fight is signed.
Abel Sanchez asked VADA to start testing early for the GGG/Canelo rematch.
His weigh-ins have changed dramatically over the years, but I never thought too much of it. Although I did notice.
But it seems like this has been talked about behind the scenes in the sport for a while.
I’m surprised ppl haven’t been comin out demanding golovkin show his proof.. If he does have proof I hope he does the right thing, but judging by the ppl he wants to fight, it looks like he wants that payday which is disappointing…
Damn, everyone going ham on Canelo. Dude’s rep is in the dirt.
It seems Most people in the sport believe Canelo is a dirty fighter whether you believe his recent excuse or not
It’s pretty damming evidence if you look at his body transformation the last couple years
why don’t people talk about Floyd’s body transformations? Look at his weigh in photos vs JM Marquez and then vs Pacquiao or even vs Canelo. Nobody brings that up doe.
There are always these guys that come out after the fact. I dont buy it, what kind of trainer who trained a fighter who fought someone on steriods but says nothing before or after the fight until now
Lmao ggg taking the payday. Especially since he won the first fight while ginger was on drugs
Carnelo Alvaroidz will pay for his transgressions for fuking up the viewing pleasure of his fans, boxing fans and casuals!
GGG should do the right thing and send the evidence he has to the Nevada State Athletic Commission department and notify Bob Bennett immediately of his findings!
If Bob and the NSAC refuse to either ban Alvaroidz for life or put him on a random VADA tests for the rest of his career then Golovkin should threaten to reveal the NSAC is protecting a drug cheat and release the evidence to the public!
I wouldn’t be surprised with how dirty Carnelo and Golden Hoe promotions is, is that this was ALL planned!
Knowing Carnelo asked for the tests and to taint his own results to call off the fight until Mexican Independence day weekend!
It’s a win win, Carnelo gains more popularity even if controversial and damaging but Floyd proved the more you villify equals more money!
Carnelo gets more prep time and can heal any preexisting injuries he has!
He ages GGG more cuz he can demand him not to risk fighting anyone serious by threatening GGG that he’s his biggest payday and no fight if you fight a top contender or former champion!
All this equals more money for Carnelo since lots of people will pay to see him lose, a risky move but well played!
Well, Oscar has done his part to distract attention away from Canelo by shoving turkey basters, baking rolling pins, whisk beaters and letting a girl fist him up his ass. But this Wednesday the spotlight will be back on Canelo. Unless Oscar releases the video on Wednesday also.
Lol, he’s literally trying to take one for the team! Lol
His legacy is shyt now. Its a damn shame. You throw away your entire life’s work by 1 huge phuck up.
Canelo can be a PED junky but that’s not stopping GGG from sniffing his ass begging for a payday. Golovkin was under the delusion he would headline in Vegas by himself smh. I bet he regrets running his mouth and getting the fight cancelled now he’s getting stripped. Dumb ass.
Is “body transformation” damning evidence now? Unless you go from Steve Urkel to Ronnie Coleman, sure….but really?
tbh i don’t even see it…i mean he was 152 shredded and a bit drained vs mayweather…adding 7-8 lbs of muscle in a 4 year period in your 20’s isnt unrealistic…that being said i would still lean towards canelo being dirty here
Clenelo turns up looking like Rambo in the first GGG fight. Ripped to shreds with no neck. He physique was too good to be true. Now we know what a bit of Clen does. GGG still won against an unfair playing field and then ad in Clenelos illegal hand wraps. Clenelo will try anything to get an advantage.
Shields better worry about his own fighters. Charlo has some ppl questioning if he’s on PED’s. I’m sure J-Rocks ppl have some suspicion at the very least.
Pac man had some crazy body transformations also. And after no longer taking those magic shakes he hasn’t had a TKO since 2009
whenever someone refuses to take a blood test or will need a cutoff….im already convinced.
im hoping nelo sues his ass.
Shields is another fool throwing stones in a glass house
I sorta hate when people say this cuz you can “look” at any number of world class fighters at the weigh in & that sh^t don’t look naturally fueled either. Whats real? Why is this real & this other thing not real?
Chael Sonnen is big on this to. He says he can just look at how a persons body is shaped & know PEDs or nah. Granted he’s well known for saying big things for attention that he can’t really back up so I’m not entirely sure he believes himself here, but he’s among the first people I think of with this sorta sh^t thats becoming more of a common stance with people in & out of the game
He’s improved too much. People said the loss to floyd made him improve?
History shows losing to floyd dont make people better fighters. No body fights as negatively as floyd so you won’t learn much losing to floyd.
The “just look at him” rationale is so stupid. So Spence, Joshua, Mayweather, etc are all on PEDs too by that logic. Anyone with a chiseled body is on PEDs!
So we going with look at his body he must be on drugs? Shields is just bitter because canelo beat his guy. But if we go by the look at him theory there are tons of boxers more jacked then canelo. Tons of fighters if you look at pics of them years ago the transformation is bigger then canelo who moved up weight. Take a look at joshua body in the olympics and amatuers to just a few years later and it looks like he ate his gold winning self with arms that don’t look human. Brook looked shredded after just 1 training camp before fighting GGG. Look at spence. And shields might want to be careful because in his own backyard the charlo brothers are bigger and more jacked then canelo. And go look at pics of them just a few years ago.