Fresh off of hearing the decision that went against Erislandy Lara Saturday night, Ronnie Shields, trainer to the Cuban southpaw, stopped to answer a few questions from Tha Boxing Voice. Shields did not mince words when expressing his frustration with the judge’s scores.
“I’m pissed off about it. It was clear to everyone that Lara won the fight; he made Canelo look like an amateur. Swinging wild, not landing anything, the punches on the arm shouldn’t count; Lara was catching all the punches.”
Despite Lara’s elusiveness, he has been criticized for not turning the heat up on Alvarez , mixing up his footwork with more power shots. Many believe that the lack of aggression and lack of engaging with Alvarez is what cost him rounds in the end. Shields stood by the strategy his fighter came in with.
“He (Lara) did exactly what the game plan was. We don’t deviate from the game plan. As long as the game plan was working that’s what we were gonna do, Lara won the fight, it’s simple as that….if you ask 100 people in here 98.7 will say Lara won the fight.”
When asked about Golden Boy founder and Alvarez’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya’s refusal to give Lara a rematch, Shields didn’t show any surprise, reverting back to the fact that De La Hoya never wanted Alvarez to take the fight.
“Well, Oscar’s gonna talk him (Canelo) out of it. Did anybody ask Canelo if he wanted the rematch? Did anybody ask him that up there? Why do you think nobody asked him?”
