By Edward Chaykovsky

Ronnie Shields, trainer of WBA 'regular' junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12KOs), feels confident that his boxer is the better fighter in every department when compared to Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (43-1-1, 31KOs).

Lara says Canelo was carefully matched for most of his career. And his trainer Ronnie Shields agrees. Lara explained that some of Canelo's past opponents were clearly overmatched, like Jose Cotto, Matthew Hatton, Carlos Baldomir and Kermit Cintron.

Lara-Canelo is going to headline a Showtime Pay-Per-View on Saturday night from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

"I think that Lara is just a better fighter, period, than Canelo. You can't take anything away from Canelo, he's a really good fighter, you can't take anything away from that, but understand this, Erislandy Lara has a better amateur career and he's having a better pro career. It's just as simple as that," Shields said.

"And Erislandy Lara is one of the best fighters and [he will face] anybody and everybody who will invite him, so Lara doesn't have a pick-and-choose career. If you take Canelo's career, his career has been pick-and-choose."