To win his world boxing title, Las Cruces’ Austin Trout had to fight in his opponent’s hometown. To defend it for the first time, he had to fight in his opponent’s home country.

No problem. Saturday night in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Trout defeated Mexico’s David Lopez by a lopsided unanimous decision and retained his WBA junior middleweight (154-pound) title.

Trout improved his record to 23-0 with 13 knockouts. Lopez, who had won 16 straight, dropped to 40-13 with 23 KOs.

The official scorecards read 119-109, 118-109 and 117-110, all for the New Mexico fighter. Though those scores seem to reflect an easy victory, Trout told the El Paso Times that wasn’t the case.

“That was a war,” he said. “We trained hard, and that was everything we trained for.”

Trout put Lopez on the canvas with a straight left hand in the 11th round.

The Las Cruces southpaw won the then-vacant WBA title in February, defeating Rigoberto Alvarez in the latter’s hometown of Guadalajara.

His traveling days may be just beginning. Louie Burke, Trout’s trainer, wrote on his Facebook page that Trout could be defending his title in six weeks or so in Australia.

Australian Anthony Mundine (42-4, 25 KOs), a former WBA champion at 168 pounds, has been clamoring for a shot at Trout’s title.

— This article appeared on page B5 of the Albuquerque Journal