Austin Trout, currently ‘running’ bare knuckle boxing, is about that life

The last time we checked in on former junior middleweight champion Austin Trout, he revealed that the ladies in his life (his mom, wife and daughter) weren’t too happy about his transition from traditional boxing to the bare knuckle form of the sport.

On Saturday, Trout will defend his BKFC welterweight title for the first time against Ricardo Franco. Have they come around yet?

“Oh yeah,” Trout said. “They’re coming to Spain. My daughter’s coming to the fight, too. She didn’t want to watch me fight when it was in Albuquerque. [Laughs.] So they came around.”

Funny what a little European trip can do to change someone’s mind about fistfighting. But, in all seriousness, the Trout family should check out what the 39-year-old is doing in a sport he just picked up a little over a year ago, going from zero to a world title seamlessly while closing in on the big four-oh.

It may not seem like a big deal for someone who hit the heights of the boxing world, facing the likes of Miguel Cotto, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and the Charlo brothers along the way. But this is a different discipline, and while he didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, he did have to adjust to his new normal.

“There’s a lot of, I don’t want to say unlearning, but just a lot of relearning,” Trout said. “For instance, boxing-wise, I can thug out 10, 12 rounds out of shape because that’s what I’ve been used to. It won’t be pretty, but I can do it. Wrestling or grappling, I’m cooked within a couple minutes. It’s a different wind. So I had to build my wind for the clinching, the holding, hitting and trying to be fast on one side but strong on the other side. I’m switching off, using their weight against them to pull their hands through all those little intricacies and Greco-Roman wrestling and Muay Thai. I started looking into a lot of that. I want to be a ninja. The whole package.”

Respect must be given, not just for his success thus far, but for the fact that Trout is still learning, still seeking knowledge and still wanting to be the best in the world at an age when most have called it a day. But truth be told, Trout knew he was going to run this town when he took off the gloves. 

“You could go back and look from the first fight,” he said. “Any interview I did, I was like, ‘Let me get my feet wet. But after this, give me the baddest motherfucker y’all got.’ I was like, ‘Who is that?’ And they’re like, ‘[Luis] Palomino.’ OK, let me get that. And luckily, he called me out and it ended up how it happened. But, yeah, I’m about to run this. It’s been a year, and I’m champ.”

After beating former UFC star Diego Sanchez in his BKFC debut in February 2023, Trout scored a near-shutout decision win over Luis Palomino to win the welterweight crown. This weekend he’s in Spain, but moving forward, he has his eyes on a lightweight title in BKFC, saying that making 155 pounds won’t be an issue.

“I’m looking to be a two-division champ,” he said. “I can still make 155, and I’m going to be running this joint.”

So have we lost him forever in traditional boxing?

“Not necessarily,” he said. “As champion, I do feel a responsibility to make bare knuckle my first love right now, even though boxing was my first love. But if the right opportunity presented itself with the gloves on, I’d be more than open to take it. This bare knuckle is keeping me busy, though. I love it.”

Trout is 6-0-1 in his seven traditional boxing bouts since a 2018 loss to Jermell Charlo, and the way he has reinvented himself, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could put the gloves back on and make some noise with some new tricks to head into battle with.

“A lot of the stuff that I’m doing now, when I go and look back at Hagler, Ali, Leonard – even back with Willie Pep, Armstrong or Sugar Ray Robinson – they had head control and hand control. They were holding hands. They catch ’em with a hook and then grab their hands again. It was a lot of hand manipulation that they used. And so I’m just going to bring that back, looking like the vet. I am with new tools.”

Sounds like bare knuckle could be a good option for some boxers to investigate. Trout agrees, but he also points out that most aren’t about that life, even if they think they are.

“Nelson Lopez is the guy that got me in, and I just kind of push them his way,” said Trout when asked if any of his fellow boxers have reached out to him about a move to the other side. “But a lot of fighters, they think they’re down. But when they really think about it, they’re like, nah. [Laughs.] So those conversations, for the most part, haven’t gone anywhere.

“But you know what? After I won my belt from Palomino, I get a DM from Jermall Charlo talking about, ‘Set up the fight – me and you for the belt.’ And I’m like, ‘Say less.’ I would love that rematch. Are you kidding me? But nothing came about it. You know what I mean?”

We do.