Exclusive Interview: Ronnie Shields.

“I have no idea why Main Events don’t push Juan. He’s their world champion, but you don’t even see his name or picture anywhere on the (Main Events) website main page. It’s like he doesn’t even fight for them. I don’t know what is wrong with them. Juan should have been fighting on the under card of Gatti and Mayweather, but they did not even offer us a fight.”–Ronnie Shields, like many, is puzzled as to why Juan Diaz does not receive main event treatment from his promoter.

His name may not be as known outside of boxing circles as it used to be, but anyone who knows boxing, knows who Ronnie Shields is. He has done it and seen it all as Shields has trained quality world class champions such as Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield, Jesus “El Matador” Chavez, “Jesse” James Leija, Raul “El Diamante” Marquez, contenders like David Tua, and even the enigmatic “Iron” Mike Tyson, just to name a few. Ronnie has said in the past that he just got a little tired of the business of boxing, and kind of faded into the background. He has emerged with a new young champion to add to his already impressive resume. That champion is WBA lightweight titlist Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz. Diaz is probably the least respected world-class fighter that Shields has ever trained. Although only twenty-one-years-of age and still undefeated, the “Baby Bull” is rarely mentioned amongst the elite fighters of today. Even his promotional company, Main Events, has put Juan on the “backburner” and touted other prospects such as Francisco “Panchito” Bojado, Ricardo “Rocky” Juarez, and Kermit “Killer” Cintron. Bojado and Cintron are now lost in oblivion and Juarez is about to challenge for his first world title, but Diaz, although seen as the lesser of the aforementioned, is already a world champion who has made three defenses of his title.

Even in his championship winning effort, in which Diaz put on a beautiful display of controlled aggression and an inside boxing clinic to lift the WBA trinket from the Mongolian man-beast known as Lakva Sim, most pugilistic critics still overlooked the “Baby Bull’s” performance, saying that, although extremely strong for 135-pounds, Sim is a very limited fighter who was “made to order” for Diaz. “They say Lakva Sim was made to order, but it’s so funny because Diego Corrales avoided him, Joel Casamayor avoided him, and all of the top guys avoided him. Juan was not even the mandatory for Sim. He was ranked like number ten by the WBA, but no one wanted to fight Sim so Juan took that fight with no hesitation. The mandatory guy did not even want to fight Sim so that shows you that everyone was running from Lakva, but not us. Juan is only twenty-one you know and he has time to get even better and sooner or later, all of the guys out there are going to have to fight Juan Diaz and then everyone will see how much of a world class fighter Juan Diaz really is,” said Ronnie Shields from the Savanna Boxing gym in Houston, Texas.

Shields has complete confidence in his young charge and, although he understands that Juan is still very young, Ronnie feels that Diaz is already an elite world-class fighter who is ready to take on the top dogs of the division. “Juan is ready for all the top guys out there. He is ready for the Castillo’s (Jose Luis), Corrales’ (Diego), Erik Morales,’ and Marco Antonio Barrera’s of the world. It’s just a matter of making those fights, and his promoter needs to step up, seek, and make those fights for him because he deserves it.”

Things have run amuck lately between Diaz’ manager, Willie Savanna, and Main Events. “Team Diaz” does not feel that their fighter has received the respect and treatment that he deserves and they are waiting for Main Events to deliver on their end of the deal. “It’s hard enough to manage a fighter’s career, especially when you also have to do all the promotion. The promoter’s job is to go to HBO, Showtime, Top Rank, Don King, whoever are the promoters of those other fighters and make the fights. I have no idea why Main Events don’t push Juan. He’s their world champion, but you don’t even see his name or picture anywhere on the (Main Events) website main page. It’s like he doesn’t even fight for them. I don’t know what is wrong with them. Juan should have been fighting on the under card of Gatti and Mayweather, but they did not even offer us a fight. He would have brought in a lot more pay-per-view buys to that card. As it stands, they had 350,000 buys which is great, but that was only because of the main event. Nobody tuned in to watch Vivian Harris. Nobody tuned in to watch Calderon (Ivan). Most people probably did not even turn on the television until it was time for the main event. In pay-per-view cards, the public should get action fights and give them what they want to see. Juan Diaz is all action and is ready and willing to fight anyone. I think people want to see Juan because he is such a young, exciting fighter. He could have added solid numbers to that pay-per-view card. It’s time for Main Events to either step up to the plate, or, you know, just let him go about his business so that he can do what he needs to do. We just want to fight the best and I know that Juan is ready to be the best of the division. There are a lot of great fighters out there and that means that there are a lot of great fights to be made. Juan is ready to show that he is a great fighter.”

So, Ronnie Shields and “Team Diaz” will continue to go about their business of preparing for, and taking the best available fights out there. Juan is truly a great kid and he seems to have a great, dedicated, caring team behind him who are just looking out for his best interests. I do not know if Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz is a “great fighter,” but I will tell you this, with his stand inside, trade heavy leather, and all action style, you can bet that I cannot wait to find out. Hopefully, Main Events will give all of us the opportunity to see just how “world-class” Diaz is.

Stay tuned for a very special feature with Juan Diaz as promised, coming soon.

Contact Sergio Martinez at srg_mrtnz@yahoo.com