Tag Archives: Austin Trout

Erislandy Lara to Defend Middleweight Title vs. Danny Garcia in August

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Erislandy Lara is preparing to defend his title…

The 40-year-old Cuban professional boxer will defend his middleweight title versus Danny Garcia on August 5, according to the WBA.

Erislandy LaraThe Showtime main event is expected to take place at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, sources said, at a 155-pound catchweight.

PBC has been planning a fight between Lara and Garcia for months, but Michael Zerafa stood in the way. The 31-year-old Australian was the mandatory challenger to Lara’s title, but he agreed to step aside after he was offered an undercard slot, Zerafa’s manager, Elvis Grant, told ESPN.

“PBC were more than fair in reasonably working this out with Team Zerafa,” Grant said.

Zerafa (30-4, 19 KOs) is ESPN’s No. 10 middleweight.

The WBA stipulated that the winner must face Zerafa by December or face being stripped.

Lara, 40, was elevated as champion after Gennadiy Golovkin relinquished his title. A former 154-pound champion, Lara’s impressive résumé includes a controversial decision loss to Paul Williams, a split decision defeat to Canelo Alvarez and a victory over Austin Trout.

The Cuban’s split decision defeat to Jarrett Hurd in a 154-pound title unification was ESPN‘s 2018 Fight of the Year. Lara’s draw with Brian Castano the following year was one of the best fights of 2019.

Lara (29-3-3, 17 KOs) has competed four times since the Castano bout, all of them against domestic-level competition. Three of those four wins came inside the distance.

Garcia (37-3, 21 KOs) is a former unified 140-pound champion and 147-pound titleholder. He rose to prominence with an upset fourth-round TKO victory over Amir Khan in 2012 and followed up with an impressive victory over Lucas Matthysse the following year.

His lengthy résumé includes wins over Erik Morales, Zab Judah and Lamont Peterson, along with tight decision defeats to Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter. The 35-year-old Philadelphian made his 154-pound debut in July with a majority decision win over Jose Benavidez Jr.

That was Garcia’s first fight since a December 2020 decision loss to Errol Spence Jr.

Alvarez Defeats Trout to Claim WBA Belt

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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has a new belt in his collection…

The 21-year-old Mexican boxer won the WBA championship belt by unanimously outpointing Austin Trout on Saturday night at San Antonio’s Alamodome.

Saul "Canelo" Alvarez

Alvarez (42-0-1) unified the 154-pound titles with a dominant victory, retaining his WBC super welterweight championship along with the vacant Ring Magazine belt. But it was the WBA belt that was the ultimate prize.

Alvarez received winning scores of 115-112, 116-111 and 118-109 to beat Trout.

Some observers speculated Alvarez wasn’t ready for a veteran opponent like Trout (26-1), but they didn’t realize how personal the bout was to him.

“My brother was a big motivation for this,” Alvarez said. “I did this for him. He beat my brother, and that’s my blood.”

Alvarez fought like a man out for revenge, knocking down Trout for the first time in his career and staggering him several times to the delight of the crowd that continually chanted “Mexico! Mexico!”

“I’ll take the loss like a man,” Trout said. “The better man won tonight. He was better than me. I have no excuses.”

Trout was the more active fighter, connecting on 154 of 769 punches compared to 124 of 431, but Alvarez landed 43 percent of his power punches compared to 27 percent for Trout.

“He shocked us, I was prepared for a different fighter,” Trout said. “I tried to pressure the action and change things up, but he kept changing.”

Alvarez dropped Trout early in the seventh round, catching the southpaw flush to the chin with a powerful straight punch. Trout staggered a few steps backward before falling front first to the canvas.

“He caught me with a good shot,” Trout said. “There is nothing else I can say.”