In a lengthy interview with Marcos Villegas of Fight Hub TV, trainer Ronnie Shields fields questions about Jermall Charlo’s last fight, his road to recovery after injuring his hand, and why their camp doesn’t have all that much interest in a potential fight against David Benavidez. Check out some excerpts of what Shields had to say below.
Shields on the Charlo-Montiel fight
“I thought it was a great fight, man, a fan-friendly fight. I think a lot of people didn’t know our opponent Montiel but I’ve been studying this kid and I knew he was gonna be a really awkward fighter and he turned out to be that. But in this day and age in boxing you can’t take anybody lightly and Jermall definitely didn’t take him lightly but Montiel put up a great fight and I was happy with the outcome.”
On Demetrius Andrade wanting a shot at Charlo
“Well, you know, Andrade has a big mouth. He talks a lot. But it goes back years before when Andrade signed a contract to fight his brother, Jermell, and Andrade was champion. And then Andrade backed out of the fight so once he did that they said they’ll never give him an opportunity to make money ever again with them in the sport of boxing. That’s what it is.
“Sometimes when you do things in this sport some things are unforgivable, and to me that’s one of the things, that you denied his brother an opportunity to fight for the world title for no reason. Well, the reasoning was he left his promoter Artie Pelulo and went to Jay Z, Jay Z didn’t like the fight so he told him ‘don’t take it’ so he didn’t take it. So that’s something’s he’s got to live with for the rest of his life.”
On fan criticism over Charlo’s lack of inspiring opposition
“Well people always say you’re not fighting this guy, you’re not fighting that guy, but sometimes those fights are hard to make because of network affiliation, because of promoter affiliation, and it’s just hard to make sometimes. It’s not the fault of the fighters but it’s issues that happen. The thing with Jermell and Castano now is that they both with the same people, so as far as the promotion is concerned and the networks and stuff is concerned so since they with the same people fights like that are easy to make.
“Look at Golovkin, he’s over at DAZN, Jermall is with PBC and Showtime. So who’s gonna shoot a fight if it happens?”
On David Benavidez saying Jermall is scared to fight him
“Well, you know, a funny thing happened just a few days ago. I got a call from a friend of mine doing a podcast...so I went on the podcast, who’s on the podcast, David Benavidez’s father. And I know David’s getting ready to fight pretty soon but his father came on and said ‘Hey, I talked to Al Haymon and I talked to Luis De Cubas Jr. and they said they’ll make the fight between David and Jermall.’
“I said ‘you did?’ I said, “well, I wonder why I didn’t get a call’ because nobody called me about that. I said ‘you know what, I’m gonna find out.’ So I called Al Haymon myself, Al Haymon said ‘I don’t know where he get that from, I haven’t talked to him.’ So he’s lying, telling people that they talked to Al Haymon about fighting Jermall and it’s not true. So he’s saying that to the public but he’s not saying that to the people that it matters to.”
On if they have any interest in a Benavidez fight
“It would’ve been better if Benavidez would’ve still been champion because (if) Jermall beat him now he just beat another opponent. Benavidez brings nothing to the table. What he have? He don’t have anything. He was champion of the world, he lost his belt on the scale. Now he’s chasing, trying to get the belt back and he gotta go through Canelo in order to do that. So if we fight him it doesn’t mean anything.
“Jermall is already in the conversation with Canelo, Canelo came out the other day and said he want to fight Caleb Plant and then Jermall Charlo. So why would Jermall need to go fight Benavidez to get to Canelo? What sense does that make?