Trout, Maldonado at crossroads, not necessarily done

To be continued? Las Cruces’ Austin Trout and Albuquerque’s Fidel Maldonado Jr., New Mexico’s most accomplished professional boxers in recent years, both absorbed career-damaging losses earlier this month.

In neither case is the damage beyond repair. Still, boxing being the brutal sport and the more brutal business that it is, nothing is certain.

First, Trout. The former WBA world junior middleweight (154-pound) champion lost to Jarrett Hurd by 10th-round TKO on Oct. 14 in a bid for Hurd’s IBF title at that weight.

In Trout’s previous fight, he lost by unanimous decision to Jermall Charlo in a bid for that same IBF title. At age 32, the Las Cruces southpaw could be said to be in boxing limbo.

Accounts of the Hurd fight suggest that Trout (30-4, 17 knockouts), far more a boxer than a puncher during his highly successful career, fought the wrong fight — engaging in a slugfest with a more powerful puncher. Though leading on two of the three official scorecards after six rounds, he lost the next four rounds on all three cards before Louie Burke, Trout’s trainer, asked that the fight be stopped.

But Burke believes it was not so much Hurd’s punches that took such a toll on his fighter.

“The reason he lost is because he dehydrated,” he said.

Burke knows something about the subject. After the final fight of his career, a loss by sixth-round TKO to Rosendo “Rocky” Alonso in Las Cruces in May 1985, he was hospitalized for extreme dehydration — and administered the last rites of the Catholic church —before recovering.

Trout’s dehydration was not that extreme, Burke said, and the veteran trainer said he didn’t realize during the fight what was happening — only that Trout was slowing down, landing fewer punches and absorbing more punishment. But afterward, Burke said Trout needed to drink five bottles of water in order to provide a urine sample for drug testing. He then was taken to a hospital.

Unlike Burke in 1985, Trout did not struggle to make weight for the Hurd fight. Burke said he’s not sure why Trout became so dehydrated. But after watching a video of the fight, Burke said, he saw the telltale signs: sloppy footwork, rubbery legs, loss of balance, exaggerated reactions to being hit — a sudden deterioration.

“The same thing that happened to me years ago,” Burke said. “It was deja vu.”

Burke said he hasn’t talked to Trout about his boxing future, but has talked to the boxer’s manager, Bob Spagnola. Trout has told Spagnola, Burke said, that he intends to continue.

And there’s this, posted by Trout on Twitter on Thursday: “Far from finished!!”

Now, Maldonado. One night before Trout’s fight in Brooklyn, N.Y., the Albuquerque left-hander faced Venezuela’s Ismael Barroso in Indio, Calif. Floored in the third round, Maldonado recovered — only to be stopped by a shot to the liver in the sixth.

Though Maldonado Jr. was trailing by a wide margin on all three official scorecards before the stoppage, his father and trainer, Fidel Sr., said he still believed the fight could have been won.

“(Barroso) started getting tired,” Maldonado Sr. said. “That was our game plan, was to get him into the later rounds and let him fatigue. Because that’s his weakness.”

But the liver shot — an agonizing pain that in the past has befallen fighters the caliber of Oscar De La Hoya and the late Johnny Tapia — foiled the plan.

And after six fights in the past 22 months, the father said, it’s time for a break.

“I’m telling you right now, I would like Fidel to retire because I don’t want him to get hurt,” the elder Maldonado said. “But (boxing) is what he does. So what I told Fidel is, ‘I’m giving you six months off. Six months, and I don’t want to see you in the gym. Go eat, pig out, do what you’ve got to do. Spend time with your family.”

When and if Maldonado (24-4-1, 19 KOs) does return, it will be to a new reality. Maldonado Sr. said he has asked for and received a release from Golden Boy Promotions, which has promoted Fidel Jr. since first signing him in 2011.

The Maldonados were unhappy that the Barroso fight was not for the WBA Fedelatin junior welterweight (140-pound) title, as they said Golden Boy had promised.

He would not have agreed to a fight against someone of Barroso’s caliber, Maldonado Sr. said, had he known no title belt was involved.

“We’re still standing,” the elder Maldonado said. “We’re still here . ... If everything plays out right, I’m gonna bring Fidel back, give him a tune-up fight, and then I want to get him a title fight.

“If he doesn’t do it, then we’ll talk about retirement.”