It’s a Homecoming for Jarrett Hurd, the Beast of the 154-pound Weight Class

Boxing could use a shot in the arm. The last two pay-per-view fights (Errol Spence vs. Mikey Garcia and Terence Crawford vs. Amir Khan) were duds and last week’s big fight between Canelo Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs had no signature moments.

Saturday’s fight at Fairfax, Virginia, could prove therapeutic. On paper, the match between Jarrett “Swift” Hurd (23-0, 16 KOs) and Julian “J Rock” Williams (26-1-1, 16 KOs) will be a lusty affair, notwithstanding the fact that Hurd is a solid favorite. The bout will air on FOX and FOX Deportes in the United States and on ITV4 in Great Britain.

Hurd vs. Williams, with Hurd’s IBF and WBA 154-pound belts at stake, will play out at EagleBank Arena on the campus of George Mason University, roughly 20 miles (and a 40-minute drive) from Hurd’s hometown of Accokeek, Maryland. This will be Hurd’s first fight in DMV (a local acronym for the D.C., Maryland, Virginia metroplex) since his 13^th pro fight when he was still fighting 6-round bouts.

Hurd, 28, won the IBF title with a 9^th round stoppage of Tony Harrison, successfully defended it with a stoppage of Austin Trout, whose eyes were badly swollen when his corner pulled him out after 10 frames, and then acquired the WBA belt with a 12-round split decision over Erislandy Lara.

Trout and Lara were stereotyped as not-fan-friendly fighters, but that perception was modified after their bouts with Jarrett Hurd. Trout vs. Hurd was a robust affair and Hurd vs. Lara, held at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas on April 7 of last year, was the consensus 2018 Fight of the Year.

Hurd vs. Lara could not have been any closer. Two judges favored Hurd 114-113 and the other had it for Lara by an identical margin. Hurd pulled it out of the fire with less than a minute remaining in the final stanza when he put Lara on the mat with a short left hook. After that fight, Hurd had surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff.

Hurd’s last outing, although his titles were at risk, was a “stay-busy” fight against England’s Jason Welborn. Hurd dismissed the spunky but overmatched Welborn in the 4^th round with a body punch. That was on the undercard of the heavyweight title fight between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder at LA’s Staples Center.

If Jarrett Hurd were a racehorse, we would say that he was a good closer. He’s big for a super welterweight, standing 6’1” with a 76-inch reach, and against Harrison, Trout, and Lara he had to make up ground at the three-quarter pole.

Julian Williams, three inches shorter than Hurd and with a three-and-a-half -inch shorter reach, will also be at a physical disadvantage. But Williams, 29, has the tools to at least make it interesting as Hurd won’t win any awards for his defense. “J Rock” has won four straight since suffering his lone defeat at the hands of Jermell Charlo who stopped him in the fifth round. Moreover, although he’s not quite a middleweight, he has a tradition to uphold. The Philadelphia native comes from a city that was once synonymous with tough middleweights.

Jarrett Hurd, who was nothing special as an amateur, has come a long way. It wasn’t long ago that he was working as a deli clerk at a Safeway supermarket. Now he’s a world champion and potentially the most exalted fighter from DMV since Sugar Ray Leonard.

But that’s putting the cart before the horse. Although we won’t have our coin on the underdog, the view from here is that “J Rock” is a formidable adversary.

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

To comment on this story in The Fight Forum CLICK HERE