The bout between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Austin Trout is a unification fight. It’s a 12-round fight for the WBC, WBA, and also the vacant Ring Magazine Super Welterweight World Championship. This event is taking place at the Alamodome promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, Canelo Promotions, and also Leija & Battah Promotions. Much like last week, we will be getting what is being called a 50/50 fight.
The whispers amongst boxing fans and media, is the dark cloud that foreshadows the Alamodome. A horrible decision that took place many years ago, when Julio Cesar Chavez fought Pernell Whitaker, it was called the worst robbery of all time. The question is will “Canelo” win this fight based on skill and merit or by a proven flawed Texas commission? The same commission that forgot to test the son of Chavez Sr.,Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., when he fought in Texas not to long ago. Texas is home to the infamous Gale Van Hoy score card, the card that only he can explain without really explaining.
This will be the second week in a row that we get a fight of this magnitude, where two fighters have the ability to prove to the world that they are the best in there respected divisions. In one corner we have the mild mannered respectable young phenom in “Canelo” Alvarez. Alvarez unlike most doesn’t come from a illustrious amateur background. Instead he learned his craft on the job.
While he gets criticized by some for lack of quality opposition, what he has been able to do is, take apart veteran fighters that, if anything, had the experience factor on their side. It hasn’t been all glory for “Canelo”, he’s suffered some hiccups along the road, most notably Jose Miguel Cotto. He was rocked in their fight and thankfully for ropes he was held up, but that fight was long ago, and “Canelo” has seemed to evolve into the fighter that he is today and garner much respect amongst boxing fans and media.
Austin Trout wasn’t Team Alvarez’ first option, but it was the young champion himself that decided this was the path that he was going to embark on. An avenue solely he pushed for wanting to prove the critics wrong and show that he is all that the fans believe he is. “The team, after the fight with Cotto, we had decided that’s the fight we wanted and yes, we sat down and talked to our promoter Golden Boy and made the decision that was who we wanted. Oh yeah, it was brought up that there are other fights and let’s take other avenues, but I wanted this fight, and that’s why we’re here on this call today with the fight coming up on the 20th,” explained Alvarez.
There’s no denying that this fight was a long time coming, but many are forced to now give respect to the young superstar, as no one expected him to get in the ring with Austin Trout, the bigger longer fighter. If anything, we expected him to go straight for Mayweather Jr. where a lost wouldn’t hurt him as much as a lost in this fight can, “There’s always going to be critics, but criticism is also constructive and in this particular case, it’s always your next fight that they’re going to criticize or talk about and that’s your toughest fight. This particular fight, yes, the one in turn, it is the toughest, and we’ll silence the critics after,” claimed Alvarez.
Obviously the plan for Team Alvarez was a super fight against Puerto Rico’s own Miguel Cotto. A fight that clearly could’ve been a PPV event, but Austin Trout threw a monkey wrench in those plans when he defeated Cotto on his home turf in the Madison Square Garden in New York City.”We had Cotto in mind. We wanted to fight Miguel Angel Cotto, but obviously when he (Trout) beat him we saw a fight that we wanted to do. Austin Trout’s undefeated. He’s a world champion, very difficult style, strong southpaw, but this also gave me the motivation to go on and fight one of the best, and we consider him as one of the best out there,” added Alvarez.
With Chavez Jr. suffering his first defeat at the hands of his toughest opponent to date in Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez, it’s now up to “Canelo” Alvarez to carry Mexico on his back. In just a few days the wait will be over. Questions will be answered, and champions will be crowned.
“Yes of course, yes, I’m very honored. I’m very proud. That’s what we’ve been training very hard for because we want to show that we belong here. We’re ready for this because it’s a big responsibility, and we want to make everybody proud,” Alvarez proclaimed.
