Don’t Doubt Trout, says Burke

Article Courtesy of Newmexicoboxing.com

Photo Courtesy of Fightnews.com

Austin Trout

By Louie Burke

The latest news of the Rigoberto Alvarez-Austin Trout world title fight postponed til January, due to a cut received during Alvarez’s fight against Nobuhiro Ishida for the interim title and an eliminator for THE world title [Editor's note: Trout-Alvarez will be for the WBA's "regular" 154-pound title, with Miguel Cotto holding the higher ranked "superchampion" belt.] The year wait has been agonizing, and staying motivated when Austin was being ducked by Ishida was extremely frustrating.

Austin’s promoter Empire Promotions, headed by boxing guru Shelley Finkel, chose to step aside and let the winner of Ishida-Alvarez fight for the title eliminator, then fight Austin for the WBA world title, which has been vacated by Miguel Cotto [when Cotto was elevated to "superchampion." - Editor] Why step aside? Because Alvarez’ promoter Golden Boy brings Television and more money to the table, bottom line.

Alvarez won, as all had hoped, for the exception of Ishida, and the fight was set for December 4th. But as of last week we were told that Alvarez had sustained a cut and needed time to heal, understandably, as not to give Austin any advantage, Austin doesn’t need an advantage, just a fair event and a fight!

No one can even imagine the agony and frustration of waiting for these opponents to grow nads so they’ll get into the ring with Austin. The politics of waiting on and off for the “mandatory fight” has, at times, left Austin wondering if it’s better to give up the mandatory position and take a fight of no real significance, but would give him some pocket change to sustain him and his family.

The sacrifices have been real, but we feel that January is going to be the magic month. All those sacrifices, postponements, ducking and dodging, BS politics of boxing will be all rectified in January when Austin becomes the 4th New Mexican and 1st Las Crucen to win THE world championship.

The Anotonio Margarito and Sergio Martinez training camps have been a blessing, Austin was the main sparring partner for both guys getting them prepared for their up coming mega fights, shown on HBO Pay-per-view this weekend and the following. While in Oxnard, Austin was asked to do numerous national and international interviews and has been seen on HBO’s 24/7 and written about in Ring magazine.

Yet not a thing, locally has been done on Austin Trout. Here’s a number one contender, an Olympic alternate, an undefeated world class professional boxer getting ready to fight for THE world championship and NOTHING has been done to keep the public informed why he’s been inactive and when he’ll supposedly be fighting for THE world championship and the frustrations and disappointments he’s had to endure in pursuit of boxing’s holy grail.

It seems as if sports journalists could find more than a few stories in the drama that has come to be outside the ring, in prelude to the drama that’s going to happen in the ring!