A bout with Canelo Alvarez in 2013 marks a turning point in combat sports, leading to a winding road towards an entirely new landscape.
A little over eleven years ago, the boxing landscape looked a whole lot different than it does today. For the most part, major fights happened on one of two premium cable networks, HBO or Showtime. Streaming in the fight world at that point was limited to niche websites like GoFightLive, as technology wasn’t quite good enough to make it a reliable platform for large numbers of viewers. The biggest boxing stars in the world were Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, with the search for the heir apparent narrowed down to a handful of names that included Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
One of the biggest names of that era, who had been a pillar of HBO programming for years, was Miguel Cotto. Cotto had recently lost to Mayweather in one of the largest pay-per-views in history, keeping his stock tremendously high. He wanted a path towards a showdown with Alvarez, whose star was growing but could also be bolstered through a showdown with Cotto. In order to make that bout more palatable to the public, he’d need not just a win, but preferably a title belt as well.
At that time, Austin Trout held the WBA light middleweight title, the genesis of which was a victory over Rigoberto Alvarez, Canelo’s brother, to win the interim title. Trout defeated Delvin Rodriguez, who had just engaged in the Fight of the Year against Pawel Wolak on ESPN. Cotto saw Trout as a viable, rising contender that would help him make a case for another blockbuster showdown against Canelo. He jumped back over to his old home at Showtime to face Trout, in front of over 13,000 at Madison Square Garden, and a then-Showtime record 1.4 million viewers. However, Trout spoiled the party, upsetting Cotto, and became a rumored opponent for either Mayweather or Canelo.
As Mayweather and Canelo began squabbling over who would own the Cinco de Mayo date, they went their separate ways promotionally. Mayweather fought Roberto Guerrero, while Canelo booked a date with Trout. Of course, Canelo would go on to face Mayweather later that year in a record-breaking financial success, and even in a losing effort, establishing himself as a crossover star. But the true final shift in that direction happened in April of 2013, when he defeated Trout in a good, competitive fight, to capture the WBA light middleweight title. Alvarez became a transcendent star, and Trout would be a serious contender for at least another five years before fading into the background of the mainstream boxing scene following a draw with Terrell Gausha in 2019.
As much as Canelo and Trout’s careers have gone in different directions, in another way, they’ve wound up in the same place. Canelo has become the face of professional boxing, its largest American draw at both the gate and on pay-per-view, most recently drawing over 600,000 buys for his win over Edgar Berlanga. That broadcast, at least in part, was aired on DAZN, the streaming platform that he helped popularize with his signing with the company back in 2018 prior to his win over Rocky Fielding. Trout, while keeping one foot in the gloved boxing sphere, has made a splash in the bare knuckle world with BKFC, where he is now its welterweight champion after unseating longtime stalwart Luis Palomino.
Photo Courtesy: BKFC
Trout is one of the reasons why BKFC has enjoyed more mainstream acceptance and attention. Very few people in the professional boxing scene have a bad word to say about Trout, who is regarded as a respectable, professional operator, a celebrated champion and a pure, technical operator inside the ring. In other words, if bare knuckle is good enough for Trout, it’s good enough for us, at least in the eyes of some of the viewers who have decided to make BKFC a part of their combat sports rotation.
It's perhaps not a coincidence that Trout is a part of the very first event under maybe the most important broadcast deal BKFC has ever signed. On Friday, September 13, it was announced that DAZN would now become “the official home” of BKFC, airing up to 24 special live events from the company per year.
That partnership begins on October 12 with BKFC’s event in Marbella, Spain, where Trout will defend his welterweight crown against Rico Franco.
“I’ve been Googling Marbella and I’m just so excited because it looks absolutely beautiful there. It’s so pretty, and I can’t wait to check it out," said Trout in a recent BKFC press release. "It’s ironic that we’re coming with destruction and violence, but fighting is definitely an art in itself.”
After a long, winding road, Trout and Canelo have wound up in the same place, at least in terms of the platform airing their fights. But Trout is not fully out of Canelo’s fighting world, even with his bare knuckle success. In an interview with TalkSport in mid-September, Trout stressed that he wants to be a two-sport athlete, and that perhaps you could see him on DAZN with both the gloves on and off. But preferably off, if one of the big names he’s familiar with is willing to oblige.
“All of them, everybody I took a loss to, I want to fight in the bare-knuckle ring. That means Canelo, Charlo, Lara, the other Charlo, Hurd, every one of those cats I would love to fight in the bare-knuckle ring; it’s different,” said Trout. “Canelo, if you want that rematch, let’s run it or anyone else that has a high-profile name. Danny Garcia is another one I’ve been calling out for a while; I’d love to get one of those fights.”
Top Photo Courtesy of BKFC.
Comments