by David P. Greisman
Ronnie Shields is familiar with both Canelo Alvarez and Alfredo Angulo; he was the trainer to Kermit Cintron when Cintron lost via technical knockout to Alvarez in November 2011, and he cornered Erislandy Lara for Lara’s win over Angulo in a back-and-forth battle in June 2013.
Asked who he thinks will win when Alvarez and Angulo meet in their March 8 pay-per-view main event, Shields called it a tough fight and then said he leans toward Canelo.
“And the only reason I’m leaning toward Canelo is because the kid is such a good boxer,” Shields said. “When I studied him when I had Kermit Cintron fight him, he looks like he’s real slow until you’re actually at the fight and you see this guy. He’s unbelievable with his hand speed. I couldn’t believe how fast this guy was. But when you watch him on tape, he looks like he’s slow. I was like, ‘Man, this guy is slow as hell.’ But then, when he fought Kermit, it was so different. It was really surprising to me. It threw Kermit off, too. After the first round, he said, ‘This guy’s fast.’ Even when I saw him fight Mayweather, and I was there, I think he surprised Floyd with how fast he was.
“I really like Angulo a lot. I like him a lot. But I just think he gets hit too much,” Shields said. “I think that Canelo is the better boxer. No matter how much pressure Angulo is going to put on him, he gets hit, he gets cut a lot. He’s going to always have to worry about a cut or swelling. I just don’t think he’s going to be able to reach Canelo. It’s a different fight between Canelo and Lara. Lara is a mover. And that’s not Canelo; he don’t move a whole lot. But he’s strong enough to where he can keep you off with a good jab and a good right hand. I think that’s the difference. When people are looking at this fight, they’re thinking about how Lara was moving so much, but that’s Lara’s style … Canelo on the other hand is not that. And I think he’s going to surprise Angulo. He’s going to stand with him and fight him a little bit, and then step around him.”
Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
