Yes, he’s our pound-for-pound number 1 but for a lot of people that’s not enough to like a fighter.
When it comes to combat sports it is rarely easy to convince the casual audience to hop on a fighter’s bandwagon. Sticking with that struggle, a lot of times talent isn’t enough. Comparing it to the attraction athletes garner in team sports, the difference is your favourite fighter might fight two or three times a year. Your favourite athlete will play anywhere from 17 to 162 games. So, just from a logistical standpoint it's harder to gain attachment to their talent level. I’m here to tell you all the reasons why you need to like Austin Trout (3-0, 1 KO).
TALENT & RESUME
Yes, I’m starting with talent. Just to get it out of the way. He’s Bare Knuckle Nation’s pound-for-pound #1. To spell that out, he’s the best bare knuckle fighter in the world (According to us).
He is also BKFC’s Welterweight Champion. A title he earned by beating the previous pound-for-pound best Luis Palomino in his second fight. Yeah, Trout went from his bare knuckle debut right to the number one guy. May I add, Palomino came into the ring after Trout’s debut to call him out. You know what they say, “be careful what you wish for.” Trout went on to make it look easy.
In case you don’t already know, he also started his combat career in boxing where he won a world title and defended it four times. He parlayed that into a life-changing payday and a fight with the face of boxing Canelo Alvarez. In total he fought in 10 world championship fights.
He finished his boxing career on a five-fight winning streak - at least at first (come back to this later) - with the last one coming on December 9, 2022. He made his bare knuckle debut just two months later on February 17, 2023 where he stopped and bloodied former UFC fighter Diego Sanchez. He did go back to boxing for one more fight in October where he secured another win but then he got what he was looking for in the ungloved game, a world title shot against Palomino.
After that, his first defense came against another 11-fight bare knuckle veteran Rico Franco. And by now you can correctly assume Trout beat him too making it look easy, again.
PERSONALITY
Describing one's personality in a way to convince someone else of how great they are is going to be a little difficult but that’s why I get paid the small bucks.
Mr. “No Doubt” Trout is a no BS kind of guy. He’s funny, smart, and well spoken. He says what he’s thinking. He’s not unrealistically arrogant. He’s honest with his opinions. And he doesn’t go out of his way to start beef.
If you haven’t had the pleasure of listening to our interview with him, do yourself a favour and check it out. It’s a great representation of what I’m talking about. Especially his stories. I’ll give you a couple examples; In that linked interview, he told me that he found out he was fighting Rico Franco in Spain when BKFC announced it to the public. Trout, the champion, found out he was fighting across The Atlantic, the same time Tommy from down the street did. Nuts.
He also told me about one of the times he went hunting. This is good. He wouldn’t say he likes hunting and that’s because he only likes the tracking part. But when it comes to doing the deed that actually makes him a little emotional. He always cheers for the animals and he used bambi as an example. In fact, when he went hunting and his group was ready to conduct business Trout was trying to scare the animal away. Ironic for a professional fighter, I know.
BACKGROUND
He is from New Mexico which he said is known for street fighting. So, he feels like he was born for bare knuckle. I think it’s safe to say we would agree.
FUTURE
After he beat Franco, we asked him what he wants in 2025. First he said to win that 25 million dollar tournament that David Feldman has talked about. Then he said he also wants that 155-lb. belt which is held by Franco Tenaglia, who fittingly also competed in street fights before making his way to bare knuckle.
The point I’m making here is with three fights under his belt, Trout already has one of the very best resumes in the entire sport. If he adds another piece of hardware and Tenaglia to that, it’ll be hard to argue it isn’t the actual best ever.
CONCLUSION
If you haven’t already been able to tell, Austin Trout is my favourite bare knuckle fighter right now. I like a bunch of others but if I was forced to pick one, which I kind of was in order to write this article, my instinct answer was Trout. I hope after reading this, he has also earned a spot on your list. If there’s anything else you would like to know about him, leave a comment and we will do our best to get you answers!
Photo courtesy: BKFC
Comments