"Well, you know, I always thought he was a fighter and was willing to fight me, but we also knew his handlers didn't want the fight, and I'm gonna show them why they didn't want the fight...You know, Canelo is a strong, fast, good fighter, but I feel like he only has one way to beat me and that's to overpower me. I feel like he is going to try and overpower me. I feel like I have more than one way to skin a cat, and I don't believe he is a stronger fighter than me," stated jr. middleweight champion Austin Trout, who talked about his upcoming April 20 showdown with fellow jr. middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. Check out what else he had to say!
DK: Champ, how's it going? Thanks for taking some time to speak with us.
AT: It's going good, and thanks for having me.
DK: Anytime. Now, most boxing people thought the fight was going to be competitive with Cotto, and a lot of people gave you a chance to win. They just didn't know how you would handle being on that kind of stage. At any point during the night of the fight, did the moment suck you in before you had to take a step back and focus on the ultimate goal?
AT: Uh, yeah. Right before the fight happened, when I walked out the tunnel and was greeted with a wall of boos. Being a Knicks fan and boxing fan and looking around the Garden, knowing all the history, I saw my name, Austin Trout from Las Cruces, New Mexico vs. Miguel Cotto, that was the time when I was sucking it in. I was watching it on TV and looked around and it was a great moment. Then, when Cotto came out, I was ready to go and it was time to fight.
DK: You and Canelo are locked and loaded for April 20th. Are you happy with the switch of date, or would you rather have been on the Mayweather undercard?
AT: Um, you know, I would have rather been on the Mayweather undercard to make the big event, HUMONGOUS. I understand it was a battle of egos though. Canelo would have boosted numbers for the pay-per-view and Mayweather would have taken all the credit. Canelo would have definitely brought in a large number of those buys, but how would they be able to show that. Mayweather would have said it was all him. I was most worried Canelo wouldn't fight me then, but the announcement came he was still gonna fight me; that's what I was most worried about. I didn't really care about all the other stuff.
DK: Canelo was always very willing to fight you. It seemed that Golden Boy wasn't too crazy about making the match-up. What does that tell you about Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions?
AT: Well, you know, I always thought he was a fighter and was willing to fight me, but we also knew his handlers didn't want the fight, and I'm gonna show them why they didn't want the fight.
DK: I'm not sure if you are willing to comment on this, but your wedding was supposed to be on April 20th. The switch of the fight to the 20th, how has that affected those plans?
AT: It was supposed to be, but we thought we were getting the May 4th date, and I didn't want to get married a week or two before the fight, so we already pushed the date to May 26th. I don't want to say it was fate or anything, but it was just a coincidence that the date got pushed up to the original wedding date. God wanted it to happen.
DK: The honeymoon will just have to wait, huh (laughing)?
AT: (Laughing) Right.
DK: Are you already in training camp for the fight?
AT: Oh yeah. We were training for the May 4th date, so we pushed it up two weeks. 7 weeks from yesterday is the fight, so we've been in camp for about two weeks already.
DK: What do you see in Canelo that you think you might be able to expose?
AT: You know, Canelo is a strong, fast, good fighter, but I feel like he only has one way to beat me and that's to overpower me. I feel like he is going to try and overpower me. I feel like I have more than one way to skin a cat, and I don't believe he is a stronger fighter than me.
DK: Should you beat Canelo on April 20th, are you looking for the Mayweather fight in September?
AT: I'm trying to move forward, and I feel like that is the best thing to move forward with. I know he's got this 6-fight deal that will keep him active, and I would love to land one of those 6 spots. If he wants to make me wait though, I'm not opposed to taking on these other champs; the other people with belts in the division. There's a lot of names to fight, so I don't have to wait.
DK: I gotcha. Champ, as always, we appreciate the time. Do you have any final words out there for the fans?
AT: I'm thankful for the opportunity, and I especially want to give a shout out to Canelo for making his desires known and met. He put his foot down and forced the fight. It was a push from the fans too, which put the pressure on De La Hoya because people demanded the fight. Shout out to the magic man, Al Haymon, and most of all, thank God.
DK: Thanks again, Austin and hopefully we'll get a chance to speak as the fight gets a little closer.
AT: Sounds good my man.
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