1) Does anyone know for sure why he left Team Tua? He left right after Tua tanked against Lennox Lewis. I can't see why Tua would fire him. After all, Ronnie was literally pleading with David to throw more punches. Does anyone know the official reason why he left? 2) How did Ronnie get involved with Mike Tyson? Strangely, he only trained Tyson for one fight. (The Lennox Lewis bout) After that, Ronnie disappeared from Team Tyson. How did he hook up with Tyson's camp, and why did he leave after one fight?
Not sure why he left, but Tua's friend Kevin Berry took over and that was a bad move. Tua wound up sueing Berry because he stole from him. I think Shields decided to part ways with him. As far as Tyson, Finkel offered Tommy Brooks short money for Tyson to face Lewis saying Tyson needed to save money. Brooks had worked for short money on three previous fights and wouldnt go for it with Lewis. He deserved the money and had Tyson fighing pretty well. Brooks really did meld well with Tyson even though Tyson **** on him constantly, not even showing up some days. Brooks said had Tyson called him he would have worked the fight for short money, but he never called. Finkel had a long standing relationship with the Main Events crew who Shields was apart of so he reached out to Ronnie. Initially Tyson was going into the fight with Stacey McKinley as the lead trainer. I was never a big fan of Shields and I thought he handled the corner pretty poorly against Lewis.
Lefthook, thank you. You're the go-to guy for stuff like this. I agree about Shields doing a bad job in Tyson's corner. Didn't Tyson try to quit before the 8th round? His corner sent him out there anyway. As for Tua, I think things gradually went south after Lou Duva left. Ronnie Shields leaving certainly didn't help things, although losing to Lewis and Bryd was Tua's fault alone.
Shields was good for a fighter like Vernon Forrest because Forrest was pretty tough mentally and technically a different type of fighter. Tyson at that stage of his career was a technical mess, and I spent some time in Tyson's camp with Brooks. Brooks was really changing Tysons style from just going straight in, to attacking in angles and stepping off to the side. You could see some this in the Francis and Norris fights. Tyson would spend the first 10 15 minutes jumping rope, and then he would work the pads under Brooks instructions and they working a lot on his balance and footwork, which I always felt was a mess during his comeback fights. Tommy is a really good boxing mind and he had Tyson improving after the Botha fight. I think he would have had a better shot with Brooks in his corner.
