By Keith Idec
NEW YORK — Deep down, Austin Trout understands that, at least for the foreseeable future, Saturday night was about as close as he’ll come to getting Saul “Canelo” Alvarez into a boxing ring he also occupies.
Alvarez sat ringside as Trout (26-0, 14 KOs) picked apart favored Miguel Cotto (37-4, 30 KOs) and retained his WBA super welterweight title at Madison Square Garden. The emerging Mexican star offered an obligatory, “I’ll fight anybody,” to a Golden Boy Promotions publicist after Trout’s unanimous decision win was announced by ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr.
Just don’t expect Golden Boy Promotions to make another matchmaking mistake now that Trout sabotaged an Alvarez-Cotto fight. You can’t fault Trout, though, for holding out hope that the 22-year-old Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KOs) will take the unconventional route by picking a skilled, strong southpaw from Las Cruces, N.M., as his foe for a probable May 4 bout in Las Vegas.
“That’s up to him,” Trout, 27, told BoxingScene.com regarding Alvarez, the WBC title-holder at 154 pounds. “Does he have the balls to do it? I hope so. I hope so. We need one champion [at 154 pounds]. We need to go ahead and unify, and lay rest to who’s the best in this division.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
