By Dan Ambrose: WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout (26-0, 14 KO’s) says he’ll be finding out really soon if WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) will be fighting him on May 4th or not.
Trout said to ESPN Deportes “Oscar De La Hoya and Canelo are supposed to meet soon, and I’m supposed to hear the answer shortly. Whenever it happens, I’ll be ready. If it’s not for Canelo, I’m coming for Floyd Mayweather, Sergio Martinez, Vanes Martirosyan, Erislandy Lara, Alfredo Angulo, Carlos Molina, whoever. There are so many names. There should be no reason why I don’t fight. If it’s not Canelo, we’re not going to wait for him; we’re going to stay busy.”
That’s a wise decision by Trout not to wait for Canelo because he could end up waiting for the remainder of his career or at least until his skills start to fade from old age at some point in his career. It would be a pity if Canelo were to dodge Trout and continue to dodge him for year after year, but I have a feeling this may happen. At any rate, it’s going to be interesting to hear what De La Hoya has to say after he has his meeting with Canelo. What comes from that meeting may tell you a lot about the kind of fighter Canelo is and is going to be in the future.
Trout earned his way to a fight with Canelo by beating Miguel Cotto last December by a 12 round decision. It was thought that it was going to be a cut and dried thing where if Trout beat Cotto then he’d automatically get the fight with Canelo. However, as soon as the fight was over, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer started saying that just because Trout beat Cotto it didn’t mean that he would get the fight with Canelo.
Of all the fighters in the junior middleweight division, Trout is the one with the best chance to beat Canelo due to his boxing skills and mobility. Canelo is pretty much a flat-footed slugger with limited height and reach. He’s not a big junior middleweight at only 5’9”, and he’s more of a traditional flat-footed slugger. If you were to compare him to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, I would say Canelo isn’t quite as good as Chavez Jr. because Junior can do a lot more things in the ring than Canelo.
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