Shields talks Charlo win, Ajagba and Stanionis

By G. Leon

09/12/2019

Shields talks Charlo win, Ajagba and Stanionis

<div> <strong>Greg Leon: Congrats on Jermall Charlo&#39;s victory over Dennis Hogan on Saturday. Can you give us some thoughts on his performance?</strong> Ronnie Shields: &quot;I thought it was a good performance. Hogan came out moving and running, but that&#39;s what we prepared for. It took Jermall a little while to establish his jab the way we wanted him to, but he was just running all over the place, so I told him to throw some cut off shots. I told him to start leading off with he left underneath, which he did and he caught him. From there on out everything went as planned.&quot;&nbsp;</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> <strong>GL: It looked to me like Jermall was following him around the ring for a bit instead of fighting behind that stick, but once he put that stick on him everything opened up.&nbsp;</strong></div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> Ronnie Shields: &quot;Yeah it was the jabbing to the body. I told him to start using the jab to the body because it would slow him down for other punches, and it did. He was able to catch him with the uppercut and then everything started to work.&quot;</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> <strong>GL: Was there anything you wanted to see from him that he failed to execute?</strong></div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> RS: &quot;No. Actually he did everything we wanted to do going into the fight. We weren&#39;t trying to knock him out in the first round, we wanted him to feel the power to put some feat into him and we did that.&quot;</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> <strong>GL: When can we expect him back him the ring?</strong></div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> RS: &quot;Sometime in March or April, I think it would be good for him to get right back in there. He just had a baby, his fifth child, he finally got the girl he wanted so he&#39;s going to enjoy some family time right now.&quot;</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> <strong>GL: Who can realistically expect to see Jermall in the ring with next year? All of the major fights at middleweight are with DAZN right now, who can fight fans look forward to seeing him mix it up with?</strong></div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> RS: &quot;I don&#39;t know yet, really and truly I don&#39;t. He&#39;s out to fight the best, he wants to fight the best, but all he can do is take care of who&#39;s put in front of him.&quot;</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> <strong>GL: You are getting right back at it with heavywight Efe Ajagba (pictured) coming back on December 21st.</strong></div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> RS: &quot;Yes indeed. In his last fight he got injured in the first round, he couldn&#39;t really throw his power shot and was able to work on his left hand in the last fight and it was good of him to get that experience of going ten rounds. We don&#39;t train for knockouts because there&#39;s always going to be a guy who could take it so even with the injury I think the last fight was a good experience for him because he needs to be prepared to go the distance in every fight. I prepare all of my fighters to make sure they&#39;re ready for the distance whatever the distance is.&quot;</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> <strong>GL: Do you see Eimantas Stanionis getting on the fast track next year?</strong></div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> RS: &quot;Absolutely and without a doubt. This kid trains his butt off and he&#39;s always ready to go. I think after this fight going into next year he&#39;s going to definitely step it up.&quot;</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> <strong>GL: Closing thoughts for the fans.</strong></div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> RS: &quot;Keep watching boxing, great things are happening right now.&quot;</div>

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