By: Hans Themistode
It didn’t take very long in the 2020 boxing calendar for one of the biggest upsets of the year to take place.
Former unified Jr Middleweight champion Julian Williams suffered one of the biggest upsets in recent memory when he was stopped by the unheralded Jeison Rosario in their contest on January 18th, at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Ironically enough, former champion Jarrett Hurd, suffered the same fate at the hands of Williams in his most recent outing. Hurd (23-1, 16 KOs) was dropped and ultimately out boxed over the course of 12 rounds.
Since his aforementioned loss, Hurd has switched trainers and is looking to bounce back in a major way when he takes on Francisco Santana (25-7, 12 KOs) at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, New York on January 25th.
With Williams suffering his upset loss just one week prior, Hurd didn’t have much to say about the outcome as his focus is solely on his own contest.
“I saw it but I really don’t have any comment on it,” said Hurd. “I’m just focused on Santana, not anybody else.”
Following his loss to Williams, Hurd opted to forgo his rematch clause as he worked on perfecting the relationship with his new trainer. Yet, now that Williams has lost, don’t expect Hurd to regret his decision to walk away from the rematch.
“No man, no regrets. No matter what happened, it still didn’t change the situation that I’m in.”
Even with Williams handing Hurd the first loss of his career, there is no animosity between the two. Instead, Hurd is expecting Williams to make a speedy comeback.
“Julian Williams bounced back before and I’m pretty sure he’ll do again. We all have bad nights and that was just one for him. I’m sure he’ll be back.”
As for Hurd, his upcoming fight against Santana will see him enter the ring with a completely different trainer working his corner. Throughout the career of Hurd, he has become a fan friendly fighter. Often forgetting his defensive responsibilities to engage in the sort of fights that the fans love.
Fans across the world can expect to see a much different Hurd. It might not be what his adoring fans want to hear, but Hurd believes at this point in his career, it is completely necessary.
“I had back to back fights of the year. When you have a fight of the year that means it’s not a one sided fight, its back and forth. I don’t want to have these fights of the year all the time. I want to have one sided fights and not have it so back and forth. I know it’s exciting and that’s what people want to see but I gotta think about myself first and my health and get back to defense.”
Call him a more cautious fighter. Maybe even a smarter fighter but whatever you do, don’t call him a completely new one.
“People are saying this is a new Jarrett but I believe that this is just the old me. I’m just getting back to it. If people watched my old fights on ShoBox then they’ll know that I had defense but at the time when I was preparing for Erislandy Lara I was developing a pressure style so I kind of forgot about the fundamentals and basics.”
The term hittable, was becoming synonymous with Hurd so getting back to the basics makes a ton of sense. Bad nights happen. But at the age of 29 and coming off the worst performance of his career, Hurd knows that he can’t afford another one. His career isn’t spiraling downwards but with another loss on Saturday night, it certainly will be.
“I’ve got a lot on the line. This is a big fight for my career. I need to win this and do so in dominant fashion if I expect to get back to where I once was.”