Former WBA light middleweight champion, Austin ‘No Doubt’ Trout makes his long awaited return to the ring, when he faces former title challenger Daniel Dawson on this weeks edition of Friday Night Fights. Trout, 28, is coming off back to back losses to Canelo Alvarez and Erislandy Lara is hoping to get himself back into title contention with a convincing win this Friday.

In part 1 of my “On The Ropes” interview with Austin Trout, he talks about his time away from the ring following his losses to Alvarez and Lara and what flaws he needed to correct. Trout also discusses his next opponent, Daniel Dawson, and how he expects himself to preform against him. Lastly, Austin speaks about Miguel Cotto, giving his thoughts on if he think a rematch can happen for the middleweight title. Here is what Austin Trout had to say.

Jenna J: You’ve been out for a quite a while but you will be back in the ring against Daniel Dawson on Friday Night Fights on August 22nd. How do you feel about the time away that you’ve had?

Austin Trout: To be honest, I didn’t like being away for so long, but looking back, I needed it. I needed that time off. After the first loss, I went through a lot of things and instead of ever getting back to the gym and working on me, I pretty much just jumped back into camp working on Erislandy Lara. Instead of fixing me, I just got myself ready to try to fight Lara, and there were a lot of flaws that he ended up exposing.

Now this time and this time away, I was able to really focus and just fix me, and get back to my old undefeated self, which I’m really feeling like now. It was good, and God knows what he’s doing and that time off, it really helped me because I got my head right. I got myself right and now I’m ready to get back in there, and get back to my winning ways.

Jenna J: As I mentioned before, you will facing Daniel Dawson. What do you think of him as opponent for this return?

Austin Trout: Well, he is a tough guy, he’s got 40 wins. He’s got more wins than I have fights and he has as many knockouts as I have wins, so we’re definitely not taking anybody lightly for any reason. Two of his losses came from former world champions and one of those loses was very debatable.

We know he’s going to come out with all the will to win and when somebody is willing to win and you’re willing to do whatever it takes to win, you know that’s a dangerous opponent.

Jenna J: You mentioned that you saw a lot of flaws in yourself. Which of those flaws do you think was the most glaring that you saw from the two loses that you had?

Austin Trout: My feet, being over my feet, my balance and stacking my feet up too much. I let my hands go beautifully when my feet are right but in the last few fights, my feet were not right at all.

I was really leaning all over my front foot, which is why I got caught with the left hand from Lara and the right hand from Canelo, so we’re definitely fixing that. We fixed that. My hands, I’m letting my hands go whenever I want to now.

Jenna J: During your time away, the two guys you last faced in the ring actually fought with each other, Alvarez and Lara fought and Alvarez got the decision. What did you think about those two meeting in the ring and what did you think of the decision?

Austin Trout: Well for me, I thought Lara won the fight. I thought he should have gotten that decision but I’m not judge though I guess. You know the golden rule right? Whoever makes the gold makes the rules. Again, for debatable purposes, I could have seen it going Canelo’s way for 1 round maybe possibly like one judge saw it. But for that one judge that had it 117-111, Levy Martinez, he was never watching the fight — he was filling the scorecards out before the fight even started.

In my opinion, I thought Lara won the fight, even thought he let a lot of opportunities go and he did do a lot of running — but that’s just how he fights. When the rounds were close, it came down to effective aggression and ring generalship. For me, I thought Lara’s ring generalship made Canelo’s aggression ineffective.

Jenna J: Being the fact that you have a loss to both of them, out of either one of them, which would you like a chance to have another opportunity with?

Austin Trout: I would say Canelo, definitely. I felt that there were a lot of things that were stacked against before I stepped into the ring, and I felt like I still did enough to win the fight. But at the same time, there were things I could have done to make that an even wider margin. It was not my best performance by far and I would love another chance to right that wrong, but I do want a rematch with Lara as well.

Jenna J: The path of Canelo Alvarez is seemingly heading towards a fight with James Kirkland in December. Do you think it’s a good fight for Canelo to give boxing fans more of what they want to see?

Austin Trout: Well I have to tip my hat off to Canelo because he did take the fight with Lara and I know a lot of people told him not too, and just the same when he took the fight with me when a lot of people told him not too. He does have the heart and the will of a champion.

Canelo and James Kirkland I think will be a barn burner. You know Kirkland ‘s resume, he’s going to come, he’s coming to fight. He’s gonna to try to fight the whole 3 minutes of every round, and you know between him and Canelo, both being big punches, somebody I feel is gonna go. I see Canelo — who has in my opinion more skills and more tools — winning that fight though.

Jenna J: The guy that you last defeated in the ring was Miguel Cotto, now he’s gone on to become the middleweight champion of the world. Do you think you two could have a rematch, being the fact that there is some unfinished business?

Austin Trout: I strongly doubt he wants a rematch with me, but I would love to have that rematch and go the middleweight division and take the belt. But again, Freddie is not stupid and neither is Cotto.

He’s trying to make his money and what I need to do I feel is get my money up, get my stock up to where they would say, “Okay, now that you have a draw you got a following, we can make this fight because it makes money for everybody.”

Jenna J: So Austin you’re saying you want to build yourself, and get a calling for a rematch with Cotto where they can say it’s worth doing?

Austin Trout: Exactly. After taking two back to back loses, I need to work my way back to anything, and this is the first step on August 22nd, is working my way back to the top where I feel like I belong.