Austin “No Doubt” Trout: The best kept secret in boxing is revealed

09/15/201612/03/2012 ESB

Austin “No Doubt” Trout: The best kept secret in boxing is revealed By Joseph Herron, photo by Tom Casino / Showtime: Last night at the famed Madison Square Garden in New York, New York, undefeated WBA Junior Middleweight Champion Austin Trout (26-0, 14 KOs) retained his title in decisive fashion by winning a wide unanimous decision over three division world champion and future Hall of Famer Miguel Angel Cotto (37-4, 30 KOs) with scores of 119-109 and 117-111 twice.

While many ringside pundits will argue that the judges’ verdict was a little wider than expected, most won’t dispute that the correct fighter won the highly publicized event.

Going into the bout, most casual fight fans weren’t familiar with the slick southpaw and were expecting a customarily clear and resolute victory for the Puerto Rican favorite in his favorite fight domain of Madison Square Garden. Although the Caguas warrior put forth a valiant effort, the experienced ring veteran couldn’t mount an effective assault against the crafty undefeated champion at any time during the twelve round match.

Now that the elite level cat is out of the boxing bag, will Austin reap the benefit of his dominant and decisive victory over one of the sport’s biggest names?

Not just yet.

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Austin Trout Shows His Mettle In The Garden As Cotto Falls Victim To The “Canelo Curse”

09/15/201612/02/2012 ESB

by Bradley Pearson, photo by Tom Casino / Showtime: A subdued wave of anti-climactic reality clouded the historic Madison Square Garden Arena Saturday night, as the hostile pro-Cotto crowd witnessed what just might have been the sun setting on the career of their favourite son.

Three weight world champion Miguel Cotto (37-4, 30 KO’s) suffered his second consecutive defeat in the hands of spirited underdog Austin Trout, who retained his WBA light middleweight crown- along with his unblemished record. An ageing performance from the proud Puerto Rican gladiator, in which Trout’s (26-0, 14 KO’s) physical advantages appeared too big a task to overcome, punishing Cotto down the stretch of the fight. With the alias “No Doubt”, the American didn’t fold under the lights, repeatedly tagging Cotto with the straight left hand at will, while bullying his smaller opponent on the inside- earning what in the end was, a comfortable points decision. Despite having some early success, Cotto ultimately couldn’t find that extra gear we’ve become so accustomed to seeing; that saw him excel in previous bouts. As the fight matured, the defending champion was able to use his range well, keeping Miguel on the outside, even backing him up at times. Whilst surprisingly wide, the verdict was certainly a fair one- and one that was met with the expected rafters of boo’s from the army of Cotto fans.

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Trout defeats Cotto; Jacobs tops Fitzpatrick; Velez destroys Sanchez II

09/15/201612/01/2012 ESB

By Rob Smith, photo by Tom Casino/Showtime WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout (26-0, 14 KO’s) may have ruined Miguel Cotto’s big chance of fighting a huge money mega fight against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez by beating Cotto by a decisive 12 round unanimous decision tonight at Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York, USA. The final judges’ scores were 117-111, 117-111, 119-109.

Trout might have lost out on a knockout in the 9th round when he hit Cotto with a perfectly legal body shot that had Cotto turning his backing away as if he was quitting. The referee gave Cotto a HUGE break by ruling it was a low blow when in fact it was right on the belt and perfectly legal. Cotto was clearly hurt by the shot and really should have knocked out.

Cotto couldn’t land his big shots during the fight, as he missed over and over again. It just looked like he was too small for the 5’10” Trout. When Cotto did land a nice shot, the crowd would roar with applause. However, this actually worked against Cotto because Trout would turn up the pressure on Cotto. It was this way the entire fight with Cotto landing a rare shot and then having to take 10 shots in return from Trout. Cotto was getting nailed with a lot of jabs, and he didn’t seem to have any way of getting out of the shots other than move around the ring. That’s what Cotto did in the second half of the fight. He was moving constantly and not fighting with the aggression that a challenger should be fighting with.

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Austin “No Doubt” Trout fights with Faith, Hope, and Love in his corner

09/15/201612/01/2012 ESB

By Joseph Herron, photo by Tom Casino / Showtime – Corinthians 13:13 – “And now these three remain: Faith, Hope, and Love; But the greatest of these is Love” (New American Standard Bible, 1995)

In the hard sport of boxing, less than one percent of the entire populous of prizefighters are ever given an opportunity to compete for the brass ring on its biggest stage. Love of the fight game is crucial, but passion alone simply isn’t enough to reach the sport’s highest pinnacle. Countless hours of dedication to the craft, driven by a resolute belief in oneself has proven to be a time tested recipe for success in the squared circle.

On Saturday, December 1st, a 27 year old fighter from Las Cruces, New Mexico will receive his time to shine at the “Mecca of Boxing”, New York City’s world renowned Madison Square Garden, when he faces his greatest challenge to date.

WBA Junior Middleweight Champion Austin “No Doubt” Trout will defend his title against ring veteran and three division world champion Miguel Angel Cotto this weekend in the main event of a Showtime televised fight card.

While most casual fight fans and mainstream sports enthusiasts will view the slick southpaw as a relative unknown going into the highly anticipated contest, the El Paso, Texas born boxer is anything but an overnight success story. The dream of eventual super stardom began to gestate within the unheralded fighter at an early age.

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Miguel Cotto vs. Austin Trout: Gogue’s big fight preview

09/15/201612/01/2012 ESB

By Joseph Herron, photo: Tom Casino / Showtime: Tonight from Madison Square Garden in New York City, three division world champion Miguel Angel Cotto (37-3, 30 KOs) will challenge undefeated Austin “No Doubt” Trout (25-0, 14 KOs) for his WBA Junior Middleweight Championship.

While the big event is nothing new to a proven fight veteran like the Puerto Rican favorite, the highly anticipated match-up will be Trout’s first trip to the big dance.

Expert trainer James Gogue, of “The Pugilist KOrner’s: Weekend Wrap”, analyzes this terrific pairing, which is slated to air on Showtime Championship Boxing at 9PM EST/PST.

“First of all, every time Miguel Cotto fights at the Garden it always turns into a huge event,” states the 29 year veteran fight trainer. “Cotto is a legitimate star in boxing and his bouts aren’t just fights to his fans…they’re big time events.”

“I had the privilege of featuring one of my fighters on the undercard of the Cotto/Clottey bout in 2009, and over 22 thousand screaming Puerto Rican fans showed up to support their favorite fighter. It was a very festive atmosphere, but it can create a lot of problems for any young fighter if they’re not fully prepared to handle the pressures of performing on that level.”

Although it’s easy to notice the disparity in big fight experience between tonight’s competing fighters, the talented fight trainer does recognize the fight attributes of the current WBA Junior Middleweight Champ.

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Showdown: Cotto vs. Trout Analysis and Prediction

11/30/201211/29/2012 ESB

by Chip Mitchell & Robert Uzzell

Analysis of Showdown: Miguel “Junito” Cotto vs. Austin “No Doubt Trout” scheduled to take place December 1, 2012 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY.

Tale of The Tape

Age: Miguel Cotto 32, Austin Trout 27
Current Status: Miguel Cotto – Challenger, Austin Trout – WBA Champion
Professional Record: Miguel Cotto – 37-3-0, 30 KOs, Austin Trout – 25-0-0, 14 KOs
Height: Miguel Cotto – 5 ft 7, Austin Trout 5 ft 9½
Reach: Miguel Cotto – 67 in, Austin Trout – 72 in
Knockout Percentage: Miguel Cotto – 75%, Austin Trout – 56%
Previous Fight: Cotto 05/05/2012, Trout 06/02/2012
Common Opponents: None of Note

Miguel “Junito” Cotto

The body snatcher returns! Miguel Cotto is the former WBA Super Welterweight (Light Middleweight) Champion. As stated in past analysis, Miguel embodies a fight-until-I-die brashness that has won him respect from fight fans and journalists. He’s a champion in the ring and win or lose, fans know that they always get their money and times worth of action.

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A Trout win over Cotto could mess up Saul Alvarez’s plans

09/15/201611/28/2012 ESB

By Bill Phanco: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will be attending this Saturday’s fight between Miguel Cotto and WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout at Madison Square Garden with the hopes of facing Cotto if he wins the fight. That’s the opponent that Alvarez badly wants, but he may not get him of Trout has something to say about it.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said this to RingTV about a Trout victory over Cotto: “I think we have to see what fashion in which Trout wins, and then we’ll make an assessment on it, and I will have to talk with Canelo.”

In other words, Alvarez may not fight Trout if he beats Cotto. I suspect that it doesn’t matter how good or bad Trout looks in the fight. If he beats Cotto, I don’t see Golden Boy allowing Alvarez to take the fight with Trout, because he’s all wrong for their young, flat-footed, easy to hit champion Alvarez. If you look at the types of fighters that they’ve been putting in with Alvarez – slow, older, stationary and smaller fighters – it’s clear that Trout is not the ideal opponent. In fact, Trout is the opposite of the types of guys that Golden Boy has fed to Alvarez, which is why I don’t see Trout getting the fight even if he destroys Cotto.

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Trout needs to give Cotto a real pounding to ensure he gets the decision

09/15/201611/28/2012 ESB

By Paul Grunich, photo by Robert Tibuni – WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KO’s) may be the champion as he enters his fight this Saturday night against former three division world champion Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s), but Trout is going to be fighting in front of pretty much mostly Cotto’s fans at the Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, USA.

What this means is that the fans will be cheering every punch that Cotto throws, even the ones where he misses his target. The judges will no doubt be influenced by the pro-Cotto fans, and this could lead to Trout losing a lot of rounds where he appears to win them. This could be big problem for Trout int his fight. He’s also starting off as the much less popular fighter of the two, and that’s a potential problem as well.

Cotto is the recognizable name, the star if you will, whereas Trout is just a young, slick fighter with a ton of athletic skills going for him. Think of Trout as the future of the junior middleweight division, along with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Even if Cotto wins this fight on Saturday, he’s not going to be fighting for too much longer because the competition is catching up to him, and he mainly wants to fight just the big names in the sport.

It’s surprising that he’s taking the Trout fight, because Trout isn’t well know. But the likely reason that Cotto is taking this fight is so that he can try and pick up a title, and then use that title to get a bigger cut of the financial pie in a unification bout against the WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez in 2013. Cotto may need a title in his possession to get a bigger cut against Alvarez.

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Trout: I have to keep Cotto on the outside

09/15/201611/26/2012 ESB

By Paul Grunich: WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KO’s) isn’t taking any chances with the hard hitting Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s) on Saturday night in their fight at Madison Square Garden in New York. Trout plans on using his jab to keep the 32-year-old Cotto at a safe distance where he’s a lot less harmful. Trout doesn’t want to get in any wars with Cotto where he could get lucky and score a knockout from one of his big power shots.

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Pacquiao picks Cotto to beat Trout

09/14/201611/19/2012 ESB

By Rob Smith: For what it’s worth, Manny Pacquiao sees Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s) as coming out on top against WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KO’s) on December 1st at Madison Square Garden, in New York. Pacquiao knows Cotto pretty well from having trounced him in a 12th round knockout back in 2009.

However, Pacquiao probably doesn’t have clue one about how good Trout is and at this point in Pacquiao’s career he would likely struggle badly and lose to a boxer/slugger like Trout. That would be a very tough fight for Pacquiao at any point in his career, especially now when he seems to have lost his ability to move and fight hard for three minutes of every round.

When asked who he thought would win the Cotto-Trout fight during Tuesday’s telephone conference with the press, Pacquiao said “I think Cotto will win the fight. Not sure by decision or knockout. Better chance for a knockout but not sure.”

It would be definitely good for Pacquiao if Cotto wins because Bob Arum has run out of big names to match him up against and he’s resorting to putting him in rematches. If Cotto loses this fight to Trout then that presumably takes away one of the biggest money fights that Pacquiao can get off the table.

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