By Luis Sandoval
After having a terrific 2012, 2013 wasn’t a good year for Austin Trout as he lost his WBA Junior Middleweight title and suffered back to back losses at the hands of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Erislandy Lara. Trout was finally able to put together a string of meaningful fights but came up short in his last two outings after having scored a major victory over Miguel Cotto last December.
The loss to Lara was a tough one as Trout found little success in the fight and tasted the canvas for the second time in his career. BoxingScene caught up with Trout and asked him for his assessment of the fight and his performance now that a few weeks had gone by.
“That's probably the worst performance I've ever had in my life and in my career. And it was his fault; Erislandy's fault. The boy is good so I can't take nothing from him. He made me look bad and we're definitely going to look at the tapes over and over again and see what we need to tighten up” Trout would tell BoxingScene.
Most fighters often come up with excuses and reasons for losing a fight but Trout did the exact opposite. In a very classy move, Trout accepted his defeat and instead gave credit to his opponent when asked if there was a reason he didn’t get the results he wanted in the bout.
“I have no excuses. We had a great camp and I was hitting on all cylinders the week leading up to the fight. It was a great camp, I can't tell you what happened. All I can say is Lara did it” said Trout.
Trout is looking to get himself back on track in 2014 and even though he just finished facing three top Junior Welterweights in his last three outings, he’s not looking to take any easy fights. Instead, the New Mexico southpaw wants to immediately get back in the mix and challenge the best fighters in his division.
“I want to step right back in there. I don't think we have time to be taking easy fights and things like that. You know whatever Al Haymon puts in front of me I'm sure will be the best bet. I'm ready to get back to the gym so I can get back in the office. Get back to my winning ways first and foremost. I need to get back in the ring, get my wins back, get back to the belt and then we'll see what happens after that” stated Trout.
It’s going to be an uphill battle for Trout to get back to the top but he’s prepared to do it and his ultimate goal besides regaining a world title is to also avenge his defeats.
“For my legacy to be complete, I got to rematch [Canelo and Lara] both”.
We’ll see if Trout can accomplish his goals in the upcoming year.
You can follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter & Instagram @Truewest007.