By Jim Dower: IBF World junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd (21-0, 15 KOs) has studied his opponent WBA Super World 154 lb. champion Erislandy Lara (25-2-2, 14 KOs) well, and he believes that he doesn’t handle pressure well, and he can be worn down, which is what his game plan is for this Saturday at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME)
The 27-year-old Hurd states that he’s bigger, stronger and younger than the 34-year-old Lara, and he plans on using his advantages to defeat the Cuban.
“Lara is a guy who can’t take pressure fighters well. I have some of the best pressure in the game. I’m younger, stronger, taller and longer. He’s not going to be able to run for 12 rounds,” Hurd said.
Hurd is going to have to start a lot earlier with his pressure if he wants to beat Lara, because by now the Cuban fighter has discovered from watching he American’s prior fights that he likes to turn up the pressure in the second half of his fights. If Hurd allows Lara to sweep the first 6 rounds, he’s going to be dealing with a lot of running in the second half of the contest and that could make it tough for him to wear him down and score a stoppage.
Lara is about to turn 35-years-old on April 11, and this is the time for Hurd to beat him. Saul Canelo Alvarez defeated Lara with pressure in their fight in July 2014, although it was a close and controversial win. That was the last time that Lara fought an A-level fighter. Lara gave the fight away by not standing his ground enough.
The judges were more impressed with Canelo’s pressure and harder landing shots than they were with Lara’s movement and defensive style of survival. Hurd has just as much power as Canelo had back then, and he’s more of a pure pressure fighter than the red-headed star. Once Hurd has his offensive machine cranked up, he’s relentless and unstoppable. The only thing anyone can do against the 6’1” Hurd when he’s running on all 8 cylinders is to try and move and stay away from him as much as possible.
”He’s [Lara] a little older so I’ll be the younger and fresher fighter,” Hurd said. ”I just feel like it’s my time. I’m going to be relentless. I’m not stopping until I get what I want.”
What we know from watching Lara’s past fights is he struggles against fighters that apply a lot of pressure on him. Lara lost the fight to Canelo basically by giving too much ground for too many rounds. In the early portion of the fight, Lara was willing to stand and counter, but after a while, Canelo’s power started to bother him and he got on his bike and ran for the last 6 rounds.
If Lara had just stopped running and stood and fought, he probably would have won the fight. Lara lost his cool entirely, and he looked like he was afraid of Canelo. The judges saw Lara’s fear, and they gave most of the last 6 rounds to Canelo. Lara is clearly bothered by high pressure fighters, especially when the have a lot of punching power like Canelo Alvarez, Alfredo Angulo and Vanes Martirosyan. Having a lot of power isn’t enough to beat Lara. You’ve got to be able pressure him the full three minutes of every round, and not let him box without having to deal with getting hit hard. That’s what Canelo, Martirosyan and Angulo all did against him.
Lara was knocked down twice by Angulo in their fight in June 2013 before the fight was eventually stopped in the 10th round because of Angulo’s head being swollen up. Angulo had the right idea in pressuring Lara, but he didn’t have quite enough punching power and hand speed to get the job done.
Hurd is a bigger puncher than Angulo, and he has more hand speed than him. Hurd is fighting Lara with him five years older than he was when he fought Angulo. He’s getting Lara at the right time of his career to be beaten with pressure.
“With my power and skill set, I can stop any fighter in the division. That definitely includes Erislandy Lara,” Hurd said.
Hurd is the biggest puncher Lara has faced since his loss to Canelo, and that was a long time ago when he was a younger fighter. For whatever reason, Lara hasn’t stepped up since then against big punchers. Part of what has hurt Lara’s ability to get the more talented fighters to face him is the amount of running he did against Canelo. Lara was spoiling most of the fight, and doing little more than jabbing, throwing pot shots, and focusing on the defensive side of his game.
Lara made it boring for the boxing fans that had tuned in hoping to see an exciting fight, and ultimately he ruined his chances of beating Canelo. Lara hasn’t changed his fighting style since that encounter. The only thing that’s changed is Lara has taken on less talented opposition. Lara has won his last 6 fights since the Canelo fight, but he’s done it against less talented fighters in: Yuri Foreman, Terrell Gausha, Vanes Martirisyan, Jan Zaveck, Ishe Smith and Delvin Rodriguez. Lara has escaped fighting the talented guys – Jarrett Hurd, Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo, Julian Williams, Erickson Lubin and Maciej Sulecki. That doesn’t mean that Lara couldn’t beat some or all of them, but he can’t know whether he could or not because he never fought any of them.
As of now the best fighters that Lara has beaten during his career are these fighters:
• Austin Trout
• Vanes Martirosyan
• Ishe Smith
• Alfredo Angulo
• Terrell Gausha
Those are good fighters, but not in the same league as Jarrett Hurd right now. Hurd just finished beating Trout in his last fight in stopping him in the 10th round last October. Hurd didn’t get his offense in gear until the 7th round. Once Hurd started walking Trout down, it was only a matter of time before he stopped him. Trout was worn down in the same way Gennady Golovkin has worn down his opposition through most of his career until recently. Lara beat Trout by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision five years ago in December 2013, but that was when you was younger. Lara was only 29-years-old back then. He’s now about to turn 35 this month, and he’s facing a much younger fighter.
During Thursday’s final press conference, Hurd towered over Lara when he stood next to him. The two guys looked like they were fighters that were a division or two apart from each other. The 6’1” Hurd was so much bigger than the 5’9” Lara, and not just with height. Hurd looked like the physically bigger guy with a larger frame. The size difference between the two fighters is ridiculous. Hurd is so much bigger.
“I haven’t watched much video on Hurd, but as we saw from the Trout fight, he’s very hittable. Come Saturday night, he better have worked on some defense or it won’t last very long,” Lara said.
Hurd is hittable, there’s no question about that. He gets hit a lot, but he just keeps coming forward behind a powerful jab. Hurd tends to give away a lot of the early rounds in his fights. He’s always done that for some reason. But in the second half of Hurd’s fights, he’s a different animal with the way he turns up the heat on his opponents and punishes then until they can no longer take it.
Hurd hasn’t fought a pure defensive fighter like Lara though. Lara likes to stay on the outside and jab. When Lara’s opponents try and close distance, he looks to hit them with a pot shot, and then move away quickly. Hurd will need to take advantage of his longer 2 1/2” reach advantage to make sure he doesn’t lose rounds just based on jabbing alone, because Lara will try and win the fight as easily as he can. If Hurd doesn’t apply enough pressure, Lara will be happy just to stay on the outside and jab him all night long and win an easy safety-first fight. Where Lara has problems is when he’s taken out of his comfort zone by his opponents and pressured nonstop. That’s how Canelo beat Lara, and that’s how Angulo gave him major problems.
For Hurd to beat Lara, he’ll need to do these things:
• Force him to fight the full three minutes of each round. Don’t let Lara rest, because he wants the fight to be fought at a slow pace so he can pot shot
• Attack the body. Canelo ignored Lara’s head and focused on landing hard body shots that impressed the judges. Lara is had to hit with head shots anyway, so it would be wise for Hurd to focus his attention on throwing to the body
• Don’t wait until the second half of the fight to start attacking Lara nonstop. If Hurd lets Lara win the early rounds, he’ll milk his lead in the second half of the contest moving to avoid getting trapped. It’ll be ugly, but Lara doesn’t care about looking good. He just wants to win. Hurd can’t allow Lara to win the early rounds uncontested.
