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

09/15/201612/01/2012 Eddy Pronishev

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

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

09/15/201612/01/2012 Eddy Pronishev

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.

Sergio Martinez to face Martin Murray on 4/27 in Argentina

09/14/201611/30/2012 Eddy Pronishev

By Andy Brooks: WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO’s) will be slipping in what amounts to being a stay busy fight against #3 WBC Martin Murray (25-0-1, 11 KO’s) in Argentina on April 27th. Martinez, who is coming off of knee surgery, can’t fight an immediate rematch with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. during that early part of the year because the chances are high that Chavez Jr. will be under suspension for his marijuana violation.

A rematch with Chavez Jr. will be taking place on September 14th, according to RingTV. So instead of that fight, Martinez will stay busy with the Murray bout. The fight will likely be good enough to satisfy HBO given Murray’s unbeaten record, and his good performance in his fight with former WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm last year.

However, it’s not a fight that will interest boxing fans because few of them have heard of Murray in the U.S other than hardcore fans. British boxing fans will likely the idea of Murray facing Martinez, but those are likely the only ones. If Martinez isn’t fighting Chavez Jr, fans want to see Martinez fight Gennady Golovkin, Peter Quillin or Daniel Geale. Those are interesting fights for Martinez, and you can’t blame fans for preferring to see Martinez against one of them rather than the little known fighter Murray.

Ariza: Pacquiao always looks good in training camp, but then falls apart against Marquez in the fights

09/15/201611/29/2012 Eddy Pronishev

By Rob Smith: Manny Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza thinks Pacquiao is looking really good in his training camp for his fight against Juan Manuel Marquez next month on December 8th. However, Ariza doesn’t see that as having a real meaning because he’s seen how Pacquiao looks good in training and then struggles when he gets in the ring with Marquez.

Ariza said to the Boxing Channel “I think Manny always looks good in camp, but then it comes to fight night, he falls apart.”

Roach needs to change Pacquiao’s game around to make his fighting style a little less predictable because Marquez has said that he knows what Pacquiao is going to do in the ring. Pacquiao does the same things over and over again, and that is part of his problem in his fights against Marquez.

Ariza says that Pacquiao isn’t following the old strength and conditioning program that Ariza had for him in the past when Pacquiao was at his best. Pacquiao stopped following the program after his win over Miguel Cotto in 2009, and since then he’s stepped back and not had the full program.

Showdown: Cotto vs. Trout Analysis and Prediction

11/30/201211/29/2012 Eddy Pronishev

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.

Schaefer working on Mayweather-Guerrero bout

09/15/201611/29/2012 Eddy Pronishev

By Bill Phanco: Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions is trying to put together a fight between WBC interim welterweight champion Robert Guerrero and Floyd Mayweather Jr. WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez wants a fight with Mayweather too, but Schaefer is looking to put Guerrero in with Mayweather instead for some reason. It could be that Mayweather isn’t all that eager to get back in with another junior middleweight after taking a lot of punishment in his win over Miguel Cotto last May.

Schaefer told RingTV “Robert [Guerrero] really wants that Mayweather fight, and so I’m going to see what I can do. I’ve already started negotiations for the Guerrero fighting Mayweather, so we’ll see where it’s going to end.”

Let’s hope that Schaefer can put that fight together because it could be a huge one due to Mayweather’s big fan base and the large amount of fans that Guerrero captured with his win over Andre Berto last Saturday night.

Kevin Johnson: I don’t need my ‘A’ game to beat Tyson Fury

09/15/201611/29/2012 Eddy Pronishev

By Michael Collins: American heavyweight Kevin Johnson (29-2-1, 13 KO’s) figures he won’t even need to switch on his ‘A’ game this Saturday night in order to defeat unbeaten #3 WBC heavyweight contender Tyson Fury (19-0, 14 KO’s) in their fight at the Odyssey Arena, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Johnson sees the 24-year-old Fury as a doofy, we-punching heavyweight without experience against quality heavyweights.

Johnson said in his conference call with Fury “Height is not a problem. I know a lot of guys that don’t know how to use their key element. It don’t matter if you’re tall or short, I can break you down in 0.5 seconds, especially if your level of opposition..This guy [Fury] isn’t championship level. It’s not as if I’m going against an ‘A’ fighter. That’s not the case for me to bring out my ‘A’ game. So my ‘A’ game will really kill this dude. So what have I learned from fighting tall guys? You really don’t learn much. The tall or the short games are the same thing. It just depends on how skillful. This [Fury] is the most doofiest I’ve met in boxing. This is the most feeble-handed guy I’ve ever seen in boxing history, and you’re going to come in and make a mistake against me? When the bell rings I’m going to go and get him. I haven’t done that in a long time.”

Roach suspicious about Marquez’s muscle growth

09/15/201611/28/2012 Eddy Pronishev

By Rob Smith: Freddie Roach is suddenly suspicious about the muscle growth of Juan Manuel Marquez as he heads towards a fourth fight with Manny Pacquiao on December 8th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Roach suspects that Marquez may have built his impressive physique by other than natural means.

Roach told usatoday.comK/u> “If [Marquez’s body] is natural, I will kiss his a**. [Marquez] has gotten bigger and gained weight. It throws up a red flag.”

Roach has nothing to go on with this, and seems to be just reaching out of nowhere on this. Marquez has never failed any tests in the past for performance enhancing drugs, and he’s really not put a whole of muscle. He started at 135, and has merely put on less than 10 pounds in the past year. That’s hardly the sign of a fighter using performance enhancing drugs.

Marquez hired a strength and conditioning coach Angel Hernandez, who has done a good job of helping Marquez build up his physique with resistance exercises. Hernandez is quite good at his job, and he’s worked wonders with Marquez.