By Scott Gilfoid: Jarrett Hurd (22-0, 15 KOs) after beating Erislandy Lara (25-3-2, 14 KOs) last night by a 12 round unanimous decision to become the IBF/WBA unified 154 lb. champion, he called out Saul Canelo Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin and Kell Brook as three guys that he would like to very much fight.
Those are the big money fights that Hurd wants to take. He says he plans on moving up to 160 permanently after he beats WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo (30-0, 15 KOs). Hurd says he also wants to fight the winner of the May 12th fight between WBO 154 lb. champion Sadam Ali and Liam Smith. Hurd says he had words with Smith in the past, and he’d like to fight him if he wins the WBO belt off of Ali.
Hurd, 27, beat the favorite Lara by a close 12 round split decision last Saturday night after knocking the Cuban down in the 12th round at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight was televised by Showtime Boxing.
“Yeah, those are the big money fights we’re speaking on,” Hurd said about fights with Kell Brook, Gennady Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez. “Eventually we want to go up and fight guys like Triple G and Canelo and Kell Brook. Liam Smith is about to fight Sadam Ali. Me and Liam Smith had a few words. We can unify also. At the end of the day, if he had a belt, I’d take that one. I felt like I just fought the best guy in the division,” Hurd said.
Kell Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn probably won’t let him get anywhere near a fighter like Hurd ever. Hurd isn’t going to wait around for Hearn to eventually let Brook fight him, because it’s not going to happen. Hearn is going to be putting Brook only fights he can win with a high degree of certainty like Amir Khan.
Hurd is ready to get in the ring with Brook, Sadam Ali and Liam Smith. Those are all fights that Hurd can win and likely win easily. But as far as facing GGG and Canelo, Hurd might not be ready for those guys. With Canelo, Hurd might have a good chance of beating him if he’s not the fighter that he was in his last few fights after being popped for clenbuterol.
If Canelo is thinner and weaker, he might not do well against a relenetless fighter like Hurd, who will stay on top of him and force him to fight at a pace that his body can’t hope to sustain. Hurd isn’t the type to stay on the outside and play it safe the way Golovkin did in his fight with Canelo last September.
Hurd will stay close to Canelo, force him to fight for the full three minutes of each round, and not allow him to move away along the ropes the way Golovkin did. Hurd is a courageous fighter, and he’s much faster at adapting than Golovkin. If Hurd was ineffective on the outside against Canelo the way Golovkin was, he would have taken the fight to the inside and caused the Mexican fighter to fight hard without being able to take his rest breaks. Canelo wouldn’t have been able to run away from Hurd the way he did against GGG, because he would have had him in close for the entire fight. Hurd is a lot more comfortable fighting in close than Golovkin.
Golovkin probably won’t be looking to fight a newcomer to the 160 lb. weight class like Hurd unless he had a large fan base or if he were ordered to take the fight by one of the sanctioning bodies. Golovkin is fighting on May 5th on HBO PPV in what is expected to be a mismatch against a fringe contender like Gary O’Sullivan. After that, Golovkin will likely face Canelo Alvarez in a rematch in September. If Hurd takes his time moving up to middleweight, he likely will never get a shot at Golovkin before he retires. Whether Hurd gets a crack at Canelo will depend on a lot of things. Hurd will need a large fan base, and he probably will need to win at least one world title in the weight class.
“I wouldn’t say hurt. He caught me with a good shot that buzzed me a little,” Hurd said about Lara stunning him at one point in the fight. “It was a shot I didn’t see. I think it was an uppercut. I had my hands high and it came from underneath, and I didn’t see it. I didn’t feel dazed. I just felt like that was a good shot. Watch out,” Hurd said.
Hurd looked like he was hurt by a big left hand from Lara in the 11th round, but he shook off the shot well and continued to fight hard. Lara couldn’t capitalize on the moment because he was too shell shocked and tired from the fast pace that Hurd and forced on him. Lara was the one that was really hurt in the 12th round when he was hit by a big left hand from Hurd that dropped him. That was a nightmarish round for Lara. He was very lucky to make it out of the round without getting knocked out.
“I was surprised,” Hurd said about his 12th round knockdown being the deciding factor in the fight. “The simple fact that the knockdown decided the fight, that’s crazy.”
Lara was getting outworked and hit by the harder shots in each round, but he was able to land enough eye-catching shots to impress the judges to give him a lot of rounds. If the judges had scored the fight on who was the more beat up of the two, it would have been Hurd winning an easy fight, because Lara was well-beaten last night, and it wasn’t even a close affair in terms of who got the worst of it.
Hurd says he’s not sure when his unification fight with WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo will be taking place this year. Hurd says whether the fight with Charlo will take place next will depend on if the money is there for the match. If there’s not enough money for the fight, then he’ll go in another direction to fight someone else.
“I’m not sure, man,” Hurd said when asked if Jermell Charlo will be next. “It depends. I’m going to fight Charlo before I move up. He didn’t say anything to me. At the end of the day, we all know I’m not running from anything. I feel Lara was my toughest fight. Charlo doesn’t even have to come looking for me. That’s the fight I want. I want that fight,” Hurd said.
Hurd could be right about Lara being the toughest fight for him in the 154 lb. weight class, and he took care of him already. Charlo doesn’t throw as many shots as Lara, and he doesn’t have the same pedigree or toughness about him as the Cuban fighter. The bigger, stronger and tougher of the Charlo brothers is Jermall, and he’s fighting at middleweight. Jermell has always been a finesse fighter up until recently when he put together 4 consecutive knockout wins over weaker opposition and not the best.
“I want Kell Brook,” Hurd said. “It doesn’t matter. If the business is right with Charlo, then we’ll fight him next.”
Hurd hoping to fight Brook next is a waste of time, because the British fighter’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing is interested in putting him in with a soft opponent in the summer before matching him against the over-the-hill Amir Khan in December. Hearn is not going to let Brook get anywhere near any fighter with even a hint of talent. This is all about putting Brook in money fights against soft opposition to make money while they still can before he gets beaten up and stopped again.