By Luis Sandoval
While Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Robert Guerrero was officially announced for May 4th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the co-main event which is supposed to be a junior middleweight unification between undefeated champions Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (41-0-1, 30KOs) and Austin Trout (26-0, 14KOs) - has not been finalized. On Tuesday, Rick Reeno spoke to Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer , who revealed that they are still looking at several names and while Trout is one of them, nothing has been officially finalized.
A few days ago Alvarez himself took to Twitter and announced his fight with Trout would be taking place on May 4th - but it now appears the deal is not fully done. Trout appeared on the most recent edition of BoxingScene's official radio show - "The Boxing Lab" and said while the fight isn't official, it's pretty much a done deal at this point.
"It looks like it's a go. I know [Richard] Schaefer jumped up and has been saying something like 'it's not a done deal, blah blah blah' - but it looks like it's a done deal. Me and Canelo is something that should happen. Something that is good for boxing," Trout would tell The Boxing Lab.
"Canelo says he wants it and you guys know where I've stood on this. You know where I stand and now Canelo [has] stepped up and made his desires known to his people. And I got to give a shout out to him for really pushing for the fight. I know he's been putting pressure on [Oscar] De La Hoya and them to make this happen. Good job Canelo for speaking up and taking charge like a man."
Trout has been asking for a shot at Alvarez for a while now and with Alvarez now requesting Trout to be his opponent, he may just get his wish. While Golden Boy may say they are still considering with other names, Trout feels they may not have a choice and will need to make the fight happen due to the influence of his advisor Al Haymon and the boxing public.
"I think Al [Haymon] definitely has a lot of influence. Ultimately Schaefer and Canelo's team can say yay or nay. But I think with the influence of Al, the pressure of the public and now the pressure of Canelo, I think it's getting to where they have no choice," said Trout.
Pairing up this fight with Mayweather-Guerrero would indeed be huge and would create arguably the biggest boxing card of the year. While Trout patiently waits to get final confirmation on the fight, he shares that he's ready to take on Canelo and put on a great show.
"He's good. He's definitely the real deal. I'm excited to take the cinnamon challenge. I've been sitting here taking teaspoons of cinnamon, no water, nothing! Just swallowing it. So I'm ready to take the cinnamon challenge May 4th. I've been practicing. I'll tell you one thing, its going to be a darn good fight. We have two undefeated champions. Im not losing and I'm sure he has the same mindset so let's see who gets carried out. Who gets carried out with their hand up and who gets carried out on a stretcher," said Trout.
You can listen to the interview in its entirety by listening to The Boxing Lab podcast: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/boxinglab/2013/02/20/the-boxing-lab-boxingscenes-official-audio-show
You can follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter @Truewest007 and tune in to The Boxing Lab every Tuesday from 6-8PM PST with hosts Ernest Gabion, Luis Sandoval, and Ryan Burton.
