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Back in December last year I, wrongly, thought that Miguel Cotto would be too big, too strong, too experienced and generally better in all areas than Austin Trout. As we all now know, Trout won the fight decisively and unanimously.
Trout looked impressive in that victory, he didn’t allow Cotto to put the pressure on him that Cotto was once renowned for. The game plan of ‘stick and move’ was well executed, but let’s not forget the fact that he was dealing with a far from prime Cotto.
However, when Trout faces Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, 41-0-1 with 30 KO’s, on 20th April, he will not have a gutsy warrior who has been through the mill on more than one occasion. Despite the fact that Alvarez has had 41 fights, those 41 fights have all gone his own way.
Trout has a 26-0-0 record with 14 KO’s to his name; Cotto is by far the best scalp he has taken.
Because Alvarez has had everything his own way does not mean he has had it easy. From a family of boxing brothers, he started in the sport at 13 years of age.
After several Mexican amateur championship wins, he turned pro at 16 and since then has built up win after win. Obviously there’s a draw in there too but then, hey, we all have bad days.
Recent victories during last three years over opponents such as Josesito Lopez, Shane Mosley, Kermit Cintron, Ryan Rhodes, Matthew Hatton, Alfonso Gomez, Lovemore N’Dou and Carlos Baldomir, show Alvarez’s calibre.
Ok, so most of those guys are not elite, but they all bring different styles to the table, and were all subsequently dealt with.
Alvarez has an underrated defence; he rarely gets tagged hard and clean. He has good movement and can move in and out of range very effectively.
For his age, he is surprisingly patient, looking for openings which sometimes tempts his opponent to open up and engage, it is then that he looks astonishingly good as he moves up through the gears, he throws combination punches to body and head with serious speed and venom, producing some real ‘wow’ moments.
Although sometimes, like against Mosley, it looks as though Alvarez switches off. Several times, it looked as though if he pushed it he could have got the stoppage against the old veteran.
The same with Ryan Rhodes, he dropped Rhodes early and then toyed with him before putting his work together and stopping him in the 12th. Matthew Hatton as well, I know Hatton is tough, but in reality, Alvarez could of put him away if he really moved up through the gears.
That would be the only criticism of ‘Canelo’…sometimes a tad too methodical. But a win is a win and Trout looks like he is going to be another victim.
Or is he?
If Trout comes in with the same sort of mentality that he had against Cotto ,then Alvarez will need to step up through the gears because Trout has proved that he can deal with a hard hitting, technically sound, combination puncher.
There’s no way Trout will look to get involved in a tear up with Alvarez. He will look to pot shot him, pick his punches and step off.
Eventually though, I expect Alvarez to catch up with Trout, not give him any angles, move up through the gears and stop him late into the fight.
