Shields: Lara Ready for Martirosyan, Then Canelo

The Cuban, seen here landing on Paul Williams in July 2011, in his only “loss,” is confident he can down Vanes. Then, possibly, comes a showdown with Canelo. (Hogan)

Junior middleweight contender Erislandy Lara’s trainer, Ronnie Shields, is excited about the upcoming elimination bout between his fighter and undefeated prospect Vanes Martirosyan. The bout will take place November 10th at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada and will be televised live on HBO.

Shields is confident the winner of the fight will earn a bout against WBC junior middleweight titlist Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. As Ryan Burton from BoxingScene.com recently reported, WBC President Jose Sulaiman and company have declared the Lara-Martirosyan bout a title eliminator.

“It’s an elimination to fight Canelo,” Shields confirmed.

I asked Shields whether or not he thought the fight with Alvarez would really be made, considering the latter has yet to really face a legitimate 154-pound contender.

“Maybe we’ll be the first one,” he said with a smile. “We’ll see what happens.”

Shields was clear that his and Lara’s focus was on Martirosyan right now, but that they expected to win the fight and earn the shot at Canelo.

“We’re just ready to go,” he said. “We take it one fight at a time. Vanes is a good fighter, I just don’t think he’s better than Lara. We’ve just got to go in there and show that now.”

Shields says Lara is as excited as he’s ever seen him before a fight, and that fight fans can expect Lara to come into the contest in top shape.

“Lara is very happy,” he said. “He’s excited about the fight, and it makes me happy to see my guy so excited. We’re ready.”

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