Greg Leon: Congrats on Efe Ajagba's victory over Michael Wallisch. Can you give us some thoughts on his performance? Ronnie Shields: "I thought his performance was great. He did everything that we worked on, I told him to come out using his jab and throw straight punches to see what the guy's going to do, but I would like to see him go to the body a little bit more. Afterwards we talked and he said he was trying to catch him with the one-two down the middle, but when the guy put his hands up I just reversed it and I was throwing right hand around his glove and catching him. When he came back to his corner after the first round I told him to work the body and not to back up at all. I told him to stand in front of him because he can't take your punches, so go get him, and he did exactly what he was supposed to do."

 

GL: Out of 10 guys 9 have been out of there in 2 rounds or less. How does he spar?

 

Ronnie Shields: (laughs) "That's a funny question because we didn't get any sparring for the fight really. I had him sparring with a cruiserweight for the last two weeks because the guy we had went one round, got hit and then he left. We didn't really have the sparring we needed for this fight, but we did a lot of pad work. It's easy to get your gameplan down with the pads."

 

GL: Is he going to have to take it easy on sparring partners?

 

RS: "Absolutely not. I was talking to (manager) Shelly Finkel the other night and I told him that we're going to have to bring sparring partners in two or three at a time and we're going to have to start paying them, that's what we've got to do man. We're getting to the point now where the sparring has got to pick up because the competition is going to get better and better and he's going to have to get these rounds."

 

GL: Any idea who he could be fighting in June?

 

RS: "Not yet."

 

GL: How many more steps are there between Wallisch and a top ten contender?

 

RS: "Look, Wallisch was a a 19-1 guy...

 

GL: (cutting in) But the 1 was by KO and that's why the early KO wasn't surprising.

 

RS: "Right. I don't know though, we've got to keep looking and see who the best fit is for us right now."