Will Alvarez-Trout Be a Modern Day Chavez-Whitaker?

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On April 20 fight fans will get to see arguably the two best junior middleweights in the world square off when WBC Super Welterweight Champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez takes on WBA Super World Light Middleweight Champion Austin Trout at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

Many critics of Alvarez have questioned his level of opposition claiming that he has fought smaller men and older fighters past their prime. This won’t be the case on April 20 when he steps in the ring against the 27 year old slick southpaw Trout, who is a highly skilled big junior middleweight and in his prime.

Trout is coming off of the biggest victory in his career against the legendary Puerto Rican three division champion (junior welterweight, welterweight, and junior middleweight) Miguel Cotto. Trout won a clear unanimous decision over the favored Cotto, defending his WBA Junior Middleweight Title for the fourth time. Immediately after the fight Trout called out Alvarez and he got his wish.

This match-up has a nice little story line behind it; Trout won his title against Alvarez’ brother, Rigoberto back in February of 2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico. “Canelo” witnessed his brother’s defeat as he watched from ringside that night. He says that he took the defeat of his brother personally and will be looking to exact his revenge on Trout when they meet this April.

Another little twist regarding this fight took place when the originally scheduled May 4 date, in which it would have been on the undercard of Mayweather-Guerrero, was changed to April 20. Apparently according to Alavarez, he wanted to have a guaranteed signed contract to fight Floyd Mayweather on Sept 14 if both he and Floyd were victorious in their upcoming fights this spring. Mayweather chose not to sign the contract so here we are. Alvarez is looking to prove that he can hold his own without Mayweather claiming, “I have no need for Floyd Mayweather, He doesn’t want to fight.”

It’s hard to not look back to 1993, where another Mexican fighter Julio Cesar Chavez took on another slick African American southpaw Pernell Whitaker in the same venue that Alvarez and Trout will be fighting in, and not draw a comparison. I’m not claiming that either Trout or Alvarez are on the same level as the aforementioned fighters or that the fight will achieve the same attendance numbers, which was reported back then to be close to 60 thousand, but there are some similarities. Trout like Whitaker is a slick southpaw counterpuncher with good technical boxing ability and Alvarez like Chavez does like to move forward and apply pressure and also has that same powerful left hook. Another comparison we have is the Mexican vs. African American rivalry. It has been said that whenever you match the two ethnic groups together it translates into high ticket sales and history has supported these claims with De la Hoya vs. Mayweather and Chavez vs. Whitaker just to name a few. While it is a major stretch to expect that this fight will be even remotely as successful as those two were, it should be interesting to see how it measures up to Mayweather-Guerrero on May 4 when it’s all said and done.

Vote here: Which fight are you more excited about Floyd Mayweather vs. Robert Guerrero or Saul Alvarez vs. Austin Trout?