Southpaw Trout stayed one step ahead of Cotto who at 32 showed his age and tough fights behind him. Trout is looking to unify titles with Mexican WBC champ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, 41-0-1 (30)in May in place of Cotto who may have looked ahead of Trout.

Even when Cotto caught up to the fast a foot boxing Trout and had him on the ropes he couldn’t penetrate his defense. Trout was too quick, too big and too smart for Cotto. He stayed cool and calm throughout. He knows how to fight in someone’s back yard as he did in Mexico. Trout won his title and defended it in Mexico so if he has to go there for Alvarez it won’t be as difficult as it would have been for Cotto.

Scoring was 117-111 by both Steve Weisfeld and John Poturaj while Adalaid Byrd had it 119-109 all for the winner. The referee was Charlie Fitch.