Mundine vs. Trout official, May 9th in Texas on PBC
IT may have been the worst kept secret in Australian boxing, but it was confirmed earlier today that both Anthony Mundine and Austin Trout have signed for their May 9th date in Texas.
Mundine, 39, will make the first defence of his recently acquired WBC Silver light middleweight title against Trout on a stacked ‘Premier Boxing Champions’ card from the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, Texas.
The card will be headlined by local favourite and former WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa Jr (24-0-1, 18 KOs) who will face former two-division titlist Ricky Burns (37-4-1, 11 KOs) in the main event.
Three fights are slated to feature on the second edition of PBC on CBS, including the aforementioned Figueroa vs. Burns and Mundine vs. Trout fights, as well as a WBO bantamweight title fight between Japan’s Tomoki Kameda (31-0, 19 KOs) and England’s Jamie McDonnell (25-2-1, 12 KOs).
Trout (28-2, 15 KOs) and Mundine (47-6, 27 KOs) have had a history of bad blood, dating to as far back as 2011, when the pair were in negotiations to fight.
https://twitter.com/BrianAmatruda/status/588832234783670273
After failing to agree to terms on multiple occasions, the fight was ultimately scrapped after Mundine’s team failed to make an appearance at a scheduled purse bid held the World Boxing Association (WBA) at its Panama headquarters.
Since then, the pair have both gone on roller-coaster journeys, having mixed results in their six fights that have followed the failed negotiations.
Trout, 29, scored a routine stoppage in a mismatch against Australia’s Frank LoPorto, before clearly outpointing Miguel Cotto in a career-best win. However, Trout went on to drop consecutive points losses to Canelo Alvarez and Erislandy Lara in 2013, being dropped and badly hurt in both fights.
As most of you know a fight between @Anthony_Mundine and I is almost done but neither sides have signed a contract. My coach jumped the gun
— Austin Trout (@NoDoubtTrout) March 24, 2015
While he has rebounded in back-to-back wins over Australia’s Daniel Dawson and Luis Grajeda last year, it can be argued that Trout has leveled off since suffering the first two blemishes on his professional record.
On the other hand, Mundine appears to be in the midst of a legitimate career resurgence following his upset split points win over the previously unbeaten Sergey Rabchenko last November.
Mundine has vowed to make a statement against Trout, who incorrectly announced that the fight had been signed last month, despite Mundine and his team not having received any paperwork for the fight.
Photos: Getty Images
