Ronnie Shields (born June 6, 1958 in

Port Arthur, Texas Port Arthur is a city in Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Texas. A small, uninhabited portion extends into Orange County, Texas, Orange County; it is east of Housto ...

) is a former professional boxer in the

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, th ...

division and is currently a boxing trainer.

Amateur career

Shields had a stellar amateur career. In 1974 he was the

National Junior Olympics The AAU Junior Olympic Games'' are the pinnacle competitions held annually by the US Amateur Athletic Union. Overview The AAU Junior Olympic Games are known as the largest national multi-sport event for youth in the United States. It has become t ...

Featherweight champion. In 1975 he was the National Golden Gloves Featherweight champion. In 1976 and 1978 he was the National Golden Gloves Light welterweight champion. Shields intended to fly on

LOT Polish Airlines Flight 7 LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007 was an Ilyushin Il-62 that crashed near Okęcie Airport in Warsaw, Poland, on 14 March 1980, as the crew aborted a landing and attempted to go-around. All 87 crew and passengers died. It was caused by the disinteg ...

, where several of his teammates would later be killed, but got sick. His trainer said: Both some amateur results and pro results can be found at www.boxrec.com/ under his boxing name Ronnie Shields.

Pro career

Shields turned pro in 1980. After winning 14 out of his first 15 bouts, Shields fought tougher competition and defeated tough journeymen like

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and contender

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. Then, in 1984 Shields challenged Billy Costello for the WBC light welterweight title, but lost a decision. In 1986 he took on Tsuyoshi Hamada in Japan for the WBC light welterweight title, but lost a split decision. He retired in 1988.

Trainer

After his boxing career, Shields has become a prominent trainer in the sport. He works out of th
Plex Boxing Gym
in Stafford, Texas. Among the fighters he has worked with are: *

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* Juan Díaz * Kassim Ouma * Egerton Marcus *

Dominick Guinn Dominick Alexander Guinn (born April 20, 1975) is an American professional boxer. He is self-managed and he is trained by Ronnie Shields and Alexander Gutierrez. He stands at 6'3" tall. Known as the "Southern Disaster",Gerbasi, Thomas (2013)Domi ...

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* Jesse James Leija *

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* Tomasz Adamek *

Chris Arreola Cristobal Arreola (born March 5, 1981) is an American professional boxer who has challenged three times for the WBC heavyweight title. He was ranked by BoxRec as the world's No.8 heavyweight at the conclusion of 2007 and as No.7 heavyweight fro ...

Jermell Charlo Jermell DeAvante Charlo (born May 19, 1990) is an American professional boxer. He is currently the undisputed light middleweight world champion, having held the WBC title since 2019 (and previously from 2016 to 2018), the WBA (Super), IBF and ' ...

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His current stable includes: * Erislandy Lara * Jermall Charlo *

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* Edwin Rodríguez *

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* Steve Lovett *

Guillermo Rigondeaux Guillermo Rigondeaux Ortiz (; born 30 September 1980) is a Cuban professional boxer. He is a former world champion in two weight classes, having held the unified WBA (Super), WBO and ''Ring'' magazine super bantamweight titles between 2013 an ...

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*Austin Dulay *Sena Agbeko *Filip “El Animal” Hrgović

Awards and recognition

World Boxing Hall of Fame In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

's ''Trainer of the Year'' (2003)

References

External links

* 1958 births Living people Featherweight boxers Boxers from Texas American boxing trainers Sportspeople from Port Arthur, Texas American male boxers {{US-boxing-bio-stub