Austin Trout
"The sky's the limit. We can go as far and as high as we want to with this team I have."
"I'm very happy with this victory. ... It was a good fight. Cotto is a great champion. He's strong. He doesn't miss a step. He comes on, he comes back, he comes fast. For me to be able to beat a fighter like Miguel Cotto is an honor in itself. Just to be able to fight a fighter like Miguel Cotto is an honor. To beat him is an even greater honor. I thank him for the opportunity to be able to fight him in the mecca of boxing, Madison Square Garden. To be here, to have my own page in history in this building is just crazy. I'm numb right now, to be honest. I don't feel anything. It's gonna hit me probably tomorrow, maybe three days from now."
"Because it was in Madison Square Garden, there were a lot of close rounds, I felt that I pulled it out, but I didn't know if I was gonna get it. So with that mind set that you know it's a close round, you don't know if you've got it, then you think you lost it, I guess I did think it was closer than the cards said. But you know, if there's any doubt if I won or not, I'm all up to doing it again if we need to."
"They shouldn't have a question of who Austin Trout is. I believe I showed a lot of great skills, toughness, whatever you need, I believe I showed that tonight."
"It's a big 'I told you so' kind of thing. I knew what I had, though. I wasn't able (previously) to show the best of Austin Trout. And I still, to be honest, don't feel like I was able to show the best of Austin Trout, but it was pretty darn close. So I'm more than happy with this performance, and I hope the fans are happy with it, and I hope they bring me back to New York. I love fighting here."
"Miguel Cotto is a strong fighter, I definitely felt some punches. I was blessed with good skin that doesn't swell up. He did hit me with some good shots. To say I didn't feel anything would be a lie. I definitely felt a lot of shots he gave me."
"I think after the first quarter a fight, my coach was telling me, 'You're giving the fight away. You're in the Garden. He's undefeated (here), he wants to stay undefeated in the Garden, they want to keep him undefeated.' He really lit a fire under my ass. We had to go back to the game plan. I was kind of falling into his game plan. So that was that point when I was like, I gotta let these hands go. I gotta put leather on him, but I wasn't doing it."
"I think the left hand was a big factor. I caught him with some good left hands, overhands, stepping around him to my right, countering with the jab was a big thing. I think it was a big factor in this fight. Not just a left hand, but a good left hand."
"I'm trying to be the best in this division. I want to clean out my division. I feel like getting all the belts would be the next thing for me to do. I got the WBA belt. It's time to get the WBC belt. After that we work on the IBF. So Canelo should be next, that would be my dream scenario. He wants to fight May (4th), I think that would be the perfect time. I'd even think about taking a fight in February and coming back in May."
"I felt I did hurt him, and I didn't want to be too hasty. I did go in to try to catch him, but he had decent defense, which showed me that he wasn't that hurt. I did go in for the kill, but he neutralized me with his defense, so I fell back and went back to the game plan."
"I'm happy that I can sit on the couch and kick my feet up. But that doesn't mean in no way that I'm gonna get comfortable. This is where the hard work starts. Staying on top is harder than getting to the top. In some minds, I might not even be on the top yet. I'm just gonna keep working, keep climbing, to be pound-for-pound, without a doubt the best."
"I would say around the fourth or fifth round -- when I first saw the mark (on Cotto), I just kept trying to work that. Then I saw about the fourth or fifth round, his eyes were closing up, and that's when I started trying to really land that hook, hook-uppercut."
"It's funny, though, because when you do good against a good fighter, that's when they are least likely to fight you. I don't know, they might not be ready to fight Austin Trout anymore. Not all fighters have the heart of Cotto."
"You would think (Canelo) would be ready to fight me, since I'm the one who beat Cotto. I'm trying to fight the best. I beat his brother, I beat Cotto. Those are the two people that he would want to avenge, and he wanted to fight. I wanna be the best. I wanna fight the best. So to me, logically, in my mind, he should be wanting to fight me. Not to mention, I have a belt. Why would you not want to unify? There's nothing left for him to do at junior middleweight but try to get another belt. I would think he would try to fight me, but that's my thinking. Not everybody thinks like me apparently."
"When I saw heard unanimous I was kind of like, 'ohhh.' ... I don't want anybody cheating for me, and I don't want nobody to cheat me. If I lost, I lost. That's what I prayed, I asked God, 'If I lost, Lord, let me lose. If I win, just give me that fair shake.' When I heard that unanimous, I was a little nervous, and when they said, 'and still,' my heart dropped."
Miguel Cotto
"I'm happy, I'm just a little disappointed with the decision of the judges. I have to continue, I have to accept it, and I'm looking forward. That's all I have to say."
"I'm good. It's good. Everybody's good. We showed a good fight, I think everybody's happy. We didn't disappoint anyone. We brought our best. I think the people enjoyed the fight."
"I'm just thinking about spending Christmas with my family, and resting a little bit, taking this time just to think, you know? I'm not finished yet. I still have boxing on my mind. I just want to rest with my family the rest of the year."
"I just have to continue. Never in my career have I made excuses. I continue my career. I accept my defeats. I learn from them. I'm just going to continue."