Austin Trout: ‘Boxing, The Sport, Can Die A Terrible Death For All I Care, And All The Belts Can Die With It’

For fight fans, boxing offers a needed escape from a week of responsibilities. It is a reprieve that eases the demands of work-life and gives them something to follow with passion. Austin Trout (Bare Knuckle, 5-0, 2 KOs) doesn’t share those same warm, fuzzy memories of boxing after a 21-year career. Trout has experienced the glory of being a belt-holder and the coldness of a gatekeeper.

“I am pretty jaded with boxing,” Trout told FightsATW. “Boxing, the sport, can die a terrible death for all I care, and all the belts can die with it, too.

Trout won the vacant WBA junior middleweight title by defeating Rigoberto Alvarez, the brother of boxing star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. That belt set the stage for him to defeat Miguel Cotto 14 years ago. Beating Alvarez’s brother and then winning over a star like Cotto set the stage for him to fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in a marquee bout. It was the first major test of Alvarez’s career. Alvarez would win, and his career would soar to new heights, while Trout learned firsthand that the politics of boxing were not always on his side.

“It was hard to get my foot in the door, but I had the belt,” Trout said. “I knew even before I got with Al [Haymon], and I know this isn’t a good belief to have, but it is a belief that I had that my belt made me fightable, marketable; it was all about the belt.”

Hailing from Las Cruces, New Mexico, Trout was not the coveted ‘big ticket seller’ that promoters flock toward. Nor was he the fighter who recorded knockouts in every fight. The man, who might be known by the moniker “No Doubt Trout,” was a quality fighter in the shadow of legend Johnny Tapia, the most famous fighter from that state. On top of that, New Mexico is the least populous state in the country.

“Thank God for Al Haymon; he didn’t allow [for] me to be pushed to the side,” Trout said. “I still got some big fights; I still got to be on TV, but those fights weren’t for me. Those fights were for someone else to make a name for themselves. I was becoming a gatekeeper, and I didn’t like that; I didn’t feel like that is where I was at in my career.”

In the early 2010s, boxing was on an uptick. Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao were beginning to exit the sport. Showtime was rivaling the age-old boxing powerhouse HBO Boxing. Trout, even after a loss to Alvarez, was an established name, but he learned the hard way that few opportunities remained for him. Trout especially didn’t like the tone set for these bouts. No longer the fighter being propped up, he was a veteran facing a new crop of emerging talent. One introduction especially irked him.

“When they would say former world champion, I would correct them and say, ‘And future world champion,” Trout said. “It got to the point where it was pretty annoying.”

Despite his nickname, he was hearing doubts. By 2019, there was reasonable suspicion that his notion of holding a belt was a dying dream, especially after being stopped by Jarrett Hurd two years earlier in a bout he was winning. 10 years after winning his first title, he changed that, but he had to switch sports to do it. Now, Trout competes in bare-knuckle. He won the bare-knuckle title in BKFC‘s welterweight division. On Friday, he faces Benjamin Bonner at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

“It was confirmation of my name,” Trout said. “For 10 years, people doubted that I would win a title again, and for 10 years I had the utmost belief I would.”

Trout also holds a grievance with some of the odd and experimental methods used in his biggest bouts.

In 2009, he was training for a 12-round bout with Nilson Julio Tapia in Panama. The bout was switched to an 11-rounder before the fight. The idea was that the bout couldn’t end in a draw. In his clash against Alvarez, open scoring was used, which Trout believes changed the course of the fight because he knew he was down on the scorecards, as the judges’ totals were shared with his team during specific rounds.

“That open scoring, that alone, I feel like if I didn’t have that, I would have had a better showing and fight against Canelo,” Trout said. “We will never know.”

Then, there were the layoffs.

After beating Joey Hernandez, Trout waited a little under a year for a fight, which landed him a bout with Jermall Charlo. He waited nearly a year-and-a-half to face Jarrett Hurd. In 2019, he fought Terrell Gausha to a draw and returned regionally after a nine-month hiatus. Then, like many fighters, he had to wait a whole year to return after the pandemic.

“I first started falling out of love with boxing after my fourth year-long layoff,” Trout said. “I felt like this is ridiculous, [people] are trying to waste me away, and I have given my all to this sport.”

For the boxing fan, it might not pack the punch of Trout in a consequential boxing match, but Trout is getting a final act that boxing didn’t seem to afford him.

“The chip on my shoulder is what is motivating me to stay in the game,” Trout said. “While bare-knuckle has given me a brand-new love of combat. It is giving me the [rush] that I lost from boxing.”

Trout never received the respect he deserved for what he accomplished in boxing. Bare-knuckle is affording him that, as he is undefeated in the sport and building a solid case for being one of the best modern BKFC fighters.

“This fight is right in line with the story,” Trout said. “No one believed I would be a champion, no one believed I would be a two-time champion, but me. I don’t need them to become a three-time champion, two-sport, two-division champion. That is legendary.”

While Trout might be best known for his run in boxing during the early part of the last decade, he is distancing himself from the sport that immortalized him. One thing is for certain: Trout will not be looking to return to the squared circle anytime soon.

“I do want boxing to die,” Trout said. “And that is me just being spiteful and hateful.”

Lucas Ketelle

Lucas Ketelle is a boxing writer and podcaster who has appeared on various platforms throughout his career.

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