The problem with former world champion Anthony Mundine’s claims that he is being ducked by WBA Light Middleweight champion Austin “No Doubt” Trout is that when Mundine’s people backed out of the fight, they did it in writing.
Trout (23-0, 13 KOs) and his promoter, Greg Cohen of Greg Cohen Promotions, say they are aggravated and disgusted by Mundine’s fraudulent claims that it was them who backed out of a proposed fight. Mundine recently announced a deal to face Rigoberto Alvarez on September 21 for the WBA interim championship.
“I don’t mind he ducked me to fight somebody else, but don’t go to the press and say it’s the other way around. At least let’s be honest if you don’t want to fight me,” said a still incredulous Trout. “Fight me or admit it’s you who doesn’t want to fight. Stop pretending. I’ll fight you any time.”
“We’d be happy to furnish the emails from his manager/promoter,” adds Cohen. “We came to an agreement and I said ‘are we in agreement on this, this, this and this? He said ‘all good.’ I sent the contract and didn’t hear from him until I got another email saying ‘the new WBA rankings just came out and Anthony has moved from #3 to #1, so we’re backing out of the deal. In the deal we came up with, I was only getting one option on Mundine, but they didn’t want to give us any options. Now that their guy is the mandatory, they don’t have to give us options. So, they made a business decision and backed out… how Anthony Mundine then comes up with these outlandish stories about us changing contracts and hiding from him and all this other stuff is beyond me.”
Trout, who successfully defended his title against Sonora, Mexico’s David “The Destroyer” Lopez (40-13, 23 KOs) on June 11 at the Auditorio Miguel Barragan in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, has been actively looking for a worthy foe for his elective title defense and says it’s crazy to suggest he’s avoiding anyone.
“I’ll still fight him as a mandatory. I don’t care. I’ll fight him any time. If he wants to duck me, that’s up to him, but don’t blame it on me and try to tarnish my reputation. I’m not avoiding anyone. I’m right here saying let’s get it on! I will fight anyone, anywhere, call my promoter to make your offer!”
