Can Jarrett Hurd Recapture his Mojo in Plant City or will this be His Final Undoing?

At the dawn of 2019, IBF junior middleweight champion Jarrett “Swift” Hurd was widely considered the best 154-pound boxer on the planet. Hailing from the D.C. suburb of Accokeek, Maryland, Hurd was coming off a fourth-round stoppage of Jason Welborn in the third defense of the title he won with a ninth-round stoppage of Tony Harrison and he had won eight of his last nine fights inside the distance.

The exception to the KO skein was his signature triumph, a 12-round decision over Erislandy Lara. Hurd vs. Lara was an instant classic.

In common with many Cuban fighters, Erislandy Lara was a cutie. But Jarrett Hurd had a style that forced Lara to stay in the pocket and trade more than was his custom. The bout was rife with tension when Hurd landed a short left-hook that put the Cuban on the canvas with 35 seconds remaining in the final round. That got Jarrett over the hump. Take away that knockdown and the match would have ended in a majority draw.

Following that bout, Hurd had surgery for a torn rotator cuff, but there was no evidence of the impairment when he blasted out the overmatched Welborn with a body shot, advancing his record to 23-0 (16 KOs).

An undefeated title-holder with a fan-friendly style, Jarrett Hurd seemed destined to become that rare commodity in boxing, a crossover star in a sport with a dwindling fan base. As evidence of his new-found fame, in January of 2019 he served as one of the grand marshals in Washington’s annual MLK Day Parade.

“His relentlessness of effort could make him must-watch TV,” wrote Bernard Fernandez after the Lara fight. But Fernandez offered up a caveat: “it could also make him susceptible to the wrong side of the quick-strike outcomes that thus far have stamped him as a rising star.”

Six months after the Welborn fight, Hurd’s bubble burst. He was dethroned by Julian “J Rock” Williams who snatched away his title with a unanimous decision. Jarrett’s disappointment was exacerbated by the fact that the match was styled as a homecoming fight for him. It was staged in Fairfax, Virginia, 30 miles from Accokeek.

Hurd rebounded with a 10-round decision over journeyman Francisco Santana, but then his career went kablooey. In his first fight as a middleweight, he was out-hustled by Luis Arias, a 6/1 underdog, and then, after sitting out all of 2022, he lost again, succumbing to unheralded Jose Armando Resendez. The ring doctor halted that contest after nine rounds because of Jarrett’s badly lacerated lower lip, but he was losing the fight. Resendez was the alpha dog.

Three months prior to the Arias fight, Jarrett lost his biggest fan, his father Fred Hurd Sr who passed away from complications of Covid-19. That may have played a part in his tumble, but against Arias and Resendez he looked nothing like the fighter who was turning heads a few short years earlier. He had lost his mojo.

Hurd returned to the ring in December of last year, matched against an easy mark in an 8-round bout on a low-wattage show in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Now it’s on to Plant City in the Tampa Bay region of Florida where he will headline Wednesday’s card on ProBox (8 pm ET) with Jeison Rosario in the opposite corner.

A Miami-based Dominican, Rosario is also a former world title-holder. In one of the biggest upsets of 2020, he stopped Julian Williams in the fifth round on Williams’ turf in Philadelphia. A one-hit wonder, he was stopped by Jermell Charlo in his first title defense and has been stopped twice more since losing his title, KOed by Erickson Lubin and Brian Mendoza.

Garry Jonas’ ProBox operation has become a lifeline for formerly well-thought-of boxers whose careers are in need of a makeover. Former 122-pound belt-holder Angelo Leo fought his way back into title contention on ProBox cards, this time as a featherweight, and upset Luis Alberto “Venado” Lopez earlier this month, deposing the IBF champion with a highlight-reel knockout.

It’s no exaggeration to say that this is a must-win fight for Jarrett Hurd (25-3, 17 KOs) and Jeison Rosario (24-4-1, 18 KOs). One might say that Hurd has more to lose if he slips deeper into irrelevancy, as he once had far greater name-recognition. And he is well-aware of the stakes. “I can’t really speak for him, but [this fight] is definitely make-or-break for me,” Jarrett told boxing writer Eric Raskin.

If he can turn back the clock – and, as he approaches his 34th birthday, that’s a big “if” – fans are in for a treat.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE