Austin Dwayne Trout (born September 18, 1985) is an American professional boxer and bare-knuckle boxer. In boxing he held the World Boxing Association (WBA) light middleweight title (Regular version) from 2011 to 2013. He extended his championship legacy by winning the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) welterweight title in 2024. As of August 29, 2026, he is #5 in the BKFC men's pound-for-pound rankings, #4 in the welterweight rankings and #1 in the lightweight rankings.
Early life Trout graduated from Mayfield High School in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Amateur career In 2004, Austin was the U.S. National Amateur Welterweight Champion.
Austin was the runner-up to make the 2004 U.S. Olympic Boxing Team. He would finish his amateur career with a final record of 163–42–1.
Professional career Early career On September 1, 2005, Trout made his professional boxing debut at the age of 19 at the Isleta Casino & Resort in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He defeated 34 year old journeyman Justo Almazan (14–44–5, 1 KO) via TKO in round 3. The fight was scheduled for 4 rounds. His second fight was against Josh Pankey, who was making his debut, in December. Trout made easy work of Pankey stopping him after 1 minute and 45 seconds of round 1.
Trout fought a further five times in 2006, winning all bouts inside the distance. In January 2007, Trout knocked out 30 year old Raul Munoz (19–9–1, 15 KOs) in the fifth round of their scheduled six round fight. Three months later, Trout was taken the six round distance when he defeated Mexican boxer Julio Perez with scores of (60–54, 60–54 and 59–55). Less than a month later, Trout was taken the six round distance again, this time against 33 year old journeyman Abdias Castillo. He won the fight comfortably on all three scorecards (60–54, 60–54 and 60–54). Trout fought and won 3 more times in 2007. By the end of the year, his record read 13 wins, 10 inside the distance and no losses.
In November 2009, he beat Taronze Washington to win the vacant WBC Continental Americas light middleweight title.
By climbing up the ranks, he became a mandatory challenger for the WBA light middleweight title. While waiting for his opportunity to fight for Miguel Cotto for the championship title, Austin ended up working with DeAngelo Singleton to help with early stages of PR. Eventually, Trout would fight for and win a world title.
WBA (Regular) light middleweight champion Trout fought the WBA (Regular) light middleweight title against Interim champion Rigoberto Álvarez, brother of Canelo Álvarez. The fight was scheduled to take place on February 5, 2011, at the Arena Coliseo in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Álvarez was on a three-fight win streak coming into the bout. Trout proved to be the superior boxer of the two winning a lop-sided unanimous decision (119–108, 119–108, 119–108). Trout lost one round on each of the three cards.
Early defences In April 2011, soon after winning the WBA (Regular) title, Trout's first defence was announced to take place against mandatory challenger David Alonso López (42–12, 23 KOs) on June 11 in Mexico. Trout dropped López in round 11 as he went on to successfully retain his WBA "regular" title in a 12-round unanimous decision win with the judges scores of 119–109, 117–110 and 118–109 in his favour. Although López had some success, the majority of the rounds were controlled by Trout using his speed, movement and fast hands. A few days after the fight, it was reported that Trout tested positive for marijuana in the post-fight drug test. López's promoter Hector Garcia called for an immediate rematch. On June 29, the test was overturned and Trout was cleared.
Over the next months, Trout's team tried to make a deal to fight Australian contender Anthony Mundine, however the fight failed to take place. By October, a deal was set for Trout to defend his title against another Australian boxer, former welterweight champion Frank LoPorto (15–4, 7 KOs), who was ranked #14 by the WBA on November 11 at the Cohen Stadium in El Paso, Texas. The fight was carried by Showtime. Trout stopped LoPorto in round 6. In what some believed would be a mismatch, LoPorto was also dropped once in round 1 following a right hook. It was the last time LoPorto fought as a professional at the age of 33.
Trout vs. Rodriguez On March 19, 2012, the WBA ordered purse bids for Trout vs. Mundine, who was their Interim champion, to take place at their headquarters on March 29. The purse bids never took place and in April, Trout announced he was close to finalizing a deal with former WBO champion Sergiy Dzinziruk (37–1, 23KOs) on August 25, his biggest fight to date. Days later, it was reported that Trout could instead fight Ring Top 10 Delvin Rodriguez (26–5–3, 14 KOs) on the June 2 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. Rodriguez was coming off a 10-round decision win against Pawel Wolak. During this time, Trout signed a deal with boxing advisor Al Haymon. The fight aired on Showtime. Trout dominated the fight, going on to win a one sided unanimous decision. The three judges scored the fight 120–108, 118–110, and 117–111 in favour of Trout. Trout was always in control of the fight and more active than Rodriguez, who only let his hands go in the final round. Over the 12 rounds, Trout landed 151 of 699 punches thrown (22%), this included 41% of his power punches landed and Rodriguez landed 89 of his 440 thrown (20%).
Trout vs. Cotto
On August 31, 2012, terms were agreed for Trout to defend his WBA (Regular) title against former three division champion and No. 2 ranked light middleweight Miguel Cotto (37–3, 30 KOs) on December 1 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Cotto was coming off a loss in May 2012 against Floyd Mayweather. 13,096 attended the Garden. Trout started the fight off fast, using his quick combinations to continually get his punches off first against Cotto. Trout also used his superior footwork to evade most of Cotto's punches, and was able to out muscle Cotto off the ropes when he was cornered in the fight. During the middle rounds, Cotto found success trapping Trout on the ropes and keeping him there, ripping Trout with body shots and finding the range with his left hook. Trout regained control in the later rounds, even backing Cotto up later in the fight, and stunned Cotto several times down the stretch with his straight left hand. Trout won the fight by a wide unanimous decision, giving him the biggest win of his career thus far. The judges scores were 117–111, 117–111, 119–109. It was the first time Cotto had lost at the arena, having a record of 7–0 before the fight, also being 9–0 in New York. Trout landed 238 of 779 punches (31%) and Cotto landed 183 of 628 punches thrown (29%). After the fight, Trout called out fellow light middleweight champion Canelo Álvarez. The fight averaged 1.047 million and peaked at 1.4 million viewers, which set a record for Showtime boxing.
Consecutive losses Trout vs. Álvarez
On April 20, 2013, Trout fought undefeated Canelo Álvarez at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The fight was supposed to take place during Cinco de Mayo weekend as the co-main event of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. bout against Robert Guerrero; however, due to a contract disagreement between Álvarez and Mayweather regarding their potential fight on September 14, 2013, Álvarez opted to headline his own card. Álvarez held a rematch clause in the contract if wanted however Trout did not. Due to the fight taking place in Texas, a moment of silence was held prior to the fight for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15 and the victims of the fertilizer plant explosion on April 17 in West, Texas.
In front of 39,247 fans, Álvarez successfully defended his WBC light middleweight title and won the WBA (Regular) & the vacant The Ring magazine light middleweight title. During the first rounds, Trout seemed to have a good game plan. However, Álvarez's power took over after the third round, eventually scoring a knockdown in the seventh round to give Trout the first knockdown of his career. Álvarez set up the knockdown with a pawing left jab, followed by the straight right hand. The fight was closer than expected, but Álvarez still managed to dominate Trout throughout the fight with impressive head movement and shocking power. All three judges scorecards were in favor of Álvarez with a fair margin (115–112, 116–111 and 118–109). Although the last score card (118–109) created controversy, the majority of sport analysts had Álvarez winning by at least 2 points. After 8 rounds, the judges scorecards read (80–71, 78–73 and 76–75) to Álvarez. CompuBox Stats showed that Trout was the busier fighter landing 154 of 769 punches thrown (20%) and Álvarez was the more accurate puncher landing 124 of his 431 thrown (29%). Immediately after the bout, Trout stated that he hadn't underestimated Álvarez but that he trained to fight a completely different fighter.
Trout vs. Lara After losing to Álvarez, Trout next fought Cuban boxer Erislandy Lara (18–1–2, 12 KOs) for his WBA Interim light middleweight title. The fight was scheduled to take place on December 7, 2013, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It was initially supposed take place on the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Saul Alvarez card on September 14, 2013. Lara, however, put on a dominant performance as he immediately nullified Trout's offense using deft footwork and clean punching. In outclassing Trout, Lara scored a knockdown in round eleven via straight left hand. Trout was hurt for the remainder of the round as Lara pressed the action. Lara cruised to the unanimous decision (117–111, 117–111, and 118–109) and retained his interim WBA light middleweight title. Trout lost his second consecutive bout by decision.
Comeback trail Following back to back defeats, Trout took time off before returning to the ring starting his comeback trail to regain a world title at light middleweight. His first comeback fight took place in August 2014 against former WBO light middleweight title challenger Daniel Dawson (40–3–1, 26 KOs) in a 10-round bout. Trout was knocked down twice in round 3 via straight right hands, but rallied on and won a unanimous decision in what was supposed to be an easy tune-up. After 10 rounds, the three judges scored it 97–90 for Trout. Trout next fought four months later in December against fringe contender Luis Grajeda (18–3–2, 14 KOs). Grajeda was knocked down once in round five and failed to come out for round 8, giving Trout a stoppage victory.
On May 9, 2015, Trout fought 33 year old Luis Galarza (20–3, 14 KOs) at the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, Texas. Galarza was a late replacement for former titlist Anthony Mundine, who had picked up an injury before the fight. Galarza took the fight on 3 days notice and was on a three-fight win streak. Trout controlled the fight from the opening bell eventually forced the stoppage after round 6. In September 2015, Trout knocked out Joey Hernandez (24–3–1, 14 KOs) following a body shot in round 6. Hernandez was deducted a point in round 4 after he threw Trout to the canvas.
Title challenges Trout vs. Jermall Charlo