Listening to former four-time and three-division world champion Miguel Cotto guarantee a victory against him, Austin “No Doubt” Trout had mixed emotions. The pair will meet for Trout’s WBA super welterweight world championship on December 1 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. “I know this fight will be a changing of the guard. I’m going to use my victory over him as an announcement that boxing has a new superstar,” said Trout. “But even though boxing is a game where the strongest survive and it’s my time, I still feel a little bad for him and his fans. I’ve been a Cotto fan and he’s had a great career, but I hope they all know this is 2012. They’re not going there to watch their hero win. They’re going there to watch him pass the torch.”
Trout says he hopes when the fight is over, he can let Cotto know it wasn’t personal and that every great fighter goes through this in time.
“In 1991, Sugar Ray Leonard fought an unknown champion right there in Madison Square Garden. He was supposed to be just tuning up for big fights on the horizon. But instead, he took a beating and that was his last fight as a serious threat to any belts. 12 rounds later, boxing had a new star, Terry Norris. That’s what this fight will be about: History repeating itself.”
