by David P. Greisman
Junior middleweight contender Austin Trout has sued the World Boxing Organization (WBO), filing his case earlier this week in his local Dona Ana County Court in New Mexico, according to Courthouse News Service.
The lawsuit comes over the fight for a world title stripped from Demetrius Andrade earlier this year. The vacant belt wound up around the waist of Liam Smith, who stopped John Thompson in October.
The problem? According to Trout’s camp, he was inappropriately removed from the WBO’s rankings altogether, taking him out of a spot that would’ve entitled him to fight for the vacant title.
BoxingScene’s own Jake Donovan broke all of that down last month in his article: “Smith-Thompson And How WBO Fished Around Trout,” which can be read in its entirety at
https://www.boxingscene.com/smith-thompson-how-wbo-fished-around-trout--96783
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Donovan notes that the WBO called Trout’s removal “an oversight.”
Trout’s lawsuit alleges more nefarious actions.
Via Courthouse News Service:
“Trout claims ‘the WBO disregarded its rules and regulations in exchange for financial payments from English promoter Frank Warren, whose financial clout was such that the WBO fraudulently showed no regard whatsoever for its own rules, regulations, or any form of ethics to prevent Mr. Trout from obtaining a deserved title fight.’ ”
Warren - who promotes Smith - is not a party to the lawsuit, as Trout's case is limited to the specific actions of the WBO that affected his career.
Browsing through the WBO’s archived ratings show that Trout was ranked No. 5 as of January and was up at No. 3 as of April. He was back down at No. 4 as of May, then completely gone in July, not returning to the rankings — and the No. 4 slot — until September. By then, Smith (who had been up to No. 3) and Thompson (No. 5) had been announced for the title fight.
Trout has fought twice in 2015, stopping Luis Galarza and putting Joey Hernandez down for the count to move his record to 30-2 with 17 KOs. The 30-year-old previously held a WBA world title — the sanctioning body’s secondary “regular” title while its primary belt belonged to Miguel Cotto and then Floyd Mayweather Jr. Trout lost that belt to Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez in 2013 and then was defeated again later that year by Erislandy Lara.
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