Quick jabs: Austin Trout flattered after signature win over Miguel Cotto, David Price keeps winning and more

Austin Trout (above) staked his claim for supremacy in the 154-pound division with Saturday's win over Miguel Cotto. So Canelo Alvarez next, right? Probably not. (AP)

Some quick jabs ...

• Count Austin Trout among those not surprised that Golden Boy may try to move forward with plans to match Saul Alvarez with Miguel Cotto next year. In the aftermath of Trout’s lopsided decision win over Cotto, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer would not rule out an Alvarez-Cotto fight.

“It’s flattering,” Trout told me on Sunday. “They obviously want no part of Austin Trout. But at some point, they are all going to have to face me."

Trout told me that he knew he had Cotto after the third round, when he noticed that Cotto was moving a lot after getting hit.

“That’s not Cotto,” Trout said. “He boxed with Manny Pacquiao when he was in trouble. Against me, he was starting to move, bouncing around on his toes. When I was watching film the only time I saw him do that was when Pacquiao had him hurt.”

• British heavyweight David Price -- who knocked out countryman Matt Skelton in the second round last weekend -- says he wants his next fight to be in the U.S. And he already has an opponent in mind: Tony Thompson, the former title challenger who was knocked out by Wladimir Klitschko last July. According to Thompson’s trainer/manager, Barry Hunter, no one from Price’s team has contacted him about the fight. However, Thompson came back to Hunter’s Washington D.C. gym two weeks ago and mentioned an interest in fighting Price.

Hunter told me he still wasn’t sure he was interested in continuing to work with Thompson. He said he was very disappointed with Thompson’s effort against Klitschko and needs to see him work for a few weeks in the gym to see if he still has it.

• Hunter says one of his other fighters, Lamont Peterson, is in the gym and is only a couple of pounds off the 140-pound limit. Peterson has a mandatory IBF title defense against Kendall Holt, but that fight has yet to be scheduled. Hunter says he is hoping he and Holt’s promoter, Gary Shaw, can schedule Peterson-Holt for late January, preferably in the D.C. area.

• Buckle up for Gabriel Rosado-Gennady Golovkin on Jan. 19 in NYC. It’s going to be a war.

• Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said welterweight Victor Ortiz -- last seen getting his jaw broken by Josesito Lopez last June -- is recovering well and will be ready to return to the ring early next year. "He’s doing much better,” Schaefer said. “He had some infections to deal with but the swelling has gone down and he is going to be ready to go in March or early April."

Schaefer said Ortiz “did not want any tune-up fights” and in addition to a rematch with Lopez said a fight with WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi at the Barclays Center was a possibility.

• The more people I talk to, the more I think Floyd Mayweather’s next fight will be against Robert Guerrero. I don’t get the feeling Mayweather wants to fight at 154 -- Alvarez’s weight class -- and Guerrero is a marketable fighter coming off an impressive win on HBO. It just seems like the right fit.

• Boxing press conferences are a joke. On Saturday, I attended a presser to announce the Feb. 9 fight at the Barclays Center between junior welterweight titleholder Danny Garcia and Zab Judah. During the press conference Garcia’s father/trainer, Angel -- a known agitator -- took some shots at Judah. Judah took offense and before long a melee broke out, with members of Judah’s entourage (who should not have been there in the first place) storming the dais. The brawl effectively ended the press conference and prevented several reporters from speaking to the fighters.

And this fight needed as much local press as it could get: Though plenty of lip service was paid to Judah’s Brooklyn roots, he has never been a draw at the box office. By popping off like that, Judah and Garcia essentially cost themselves money.

• Had a chance to catch up with U.S. Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields this weekend for a story that will run later this month in Sports Illustrated. Shields told me she has not made a decision yet on making another Olympic run, and had an interesting reason why.

“I’m not really recognized,” Shields said. “I got a lot of credit for being the first woman Olympic gold medalist. I feel like if one of the men won gold they would have these endorsements or a huge signing bonus. It’s just different for the women. We weren’t showcased like we should have been. A lot of people who were watching couldn’t find me on TV. I think I should get more credit. I have already done the hard work, I shouldn’t keep doing it without reaping the rewards. So I have not decided on what I am going to do. I’m going to do what is going to help keep food on the table.”

• Shameless plug time: Pick up SI this week for my column on why fighters' unwillingness to seek out the biggest challenge has created a watered-down era in boxing.

-- Chris Mannix