Austin “No Doubt” Trout is finally getting the big fight he has been clamoring for since he won his WBA “regular” junior middleweight championship early last year. On December 1, he will attempt to defend his title for the fourth time when he takes on Puerto Rican boxing icon Miguel Cotto at Madison Square Garden on Showtime.
“The excitement is almost indescribable,” said a seemingly glowing Trout. “I am working on curbing it because I don’t think my adrenalin has stopped pumping since I got the word a few weeks ago.”
The Las Cruces, N.M. native Trout has plenty to be excited about considering just a couple months ago it seemed he couldn’t land a fight with anyone. His prospects seemed so bleak at one point there was talk of him fighting former Contender participant Jimmy Lange in a non-title bout.
He had tried to secure unification bouts with WBC titleholder Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and IBF titleholder Cornelius “K9” Bundrage, but to no avail.
Bundrage said he was only interested in the likes of Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao or Miguel Cotto. He also felt that he couldn’t “get up” for Trout and would be on vacation.
It seems as though Trout is having the last laugh, as he will be fighting one of the biggest names in boxing while Bundrage is left out in the cold.
“I bet he feels stupid,” Trout said. “I would feel stupid if I was him, ‘I am on vacation,’ get out of here, man.“
Trout feels as though his style will give the rejuvenated Cotto problems.
“I got a good jab, I got long arms. I won’t stand there and let him hit me. I am going to move while punching and be a moving target,” said Trout of his in-ring strategy. “I think those things will give him the most problems—my footwork, my length and speed.”
With the fight taking place at Madison Square Garden, which is somewhat of a second home for Cotto, the slick southpaw Trout understands that the crowd will be against him.
“It [the hostile crowd] will be more motivation for me,” said the upset-minded Trout. “My goal is to get the Garden quiet. So if the Garden is quiet except for the few New Mexicans that are out there, then I did my job or I’m doing my job.”
Although Cotto has been stopped twice in career, Trout isn’t looking for the knockout. He thinks it will be a tough fight initially, but the slick southpaw believes he will outbox his opponent.
“I think in the beginning there will be some good close rounds,” Trout said. “But once I get a bead on him in the middle rounds, I will pull away in the later rounds.”
Cotto is said to be looking for a fight with Canelo Alvarez next year on Cinco de Mayo weekend. The Mexican holiday is typically one of the biggest boxing weekends of the year.
“He can target whoever he wants after the fight, but if he thinks he’s going to beat me, he’s sadly mistaken,” said the self-assured Trout.
Trout understands that even with a win over Cotto he won’t be the true WBA champion until he beats WBA "super" champion Floyd Mayweather or picks up another sanctioning body’s belt.
“As long as Floyd has that belt above me, no matter what I do, they [critics] will try to discredit me as long as someone else has another belt of mine.
“I am not looking past Cotto, but my goal is to get another belt and I feel like a win over Cotto can definitely make that happen. I want to be undisputed [champion]. I won’t feel like I’ve done everything on my list of things to do until I have all the belts in this class,” Trout said.
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