The shot ‘Hurd round da world’ was never fired. It almost was.
With about :40 hovering around the 12th, a sunkissed Jarrett Hurd (remembering the color scheme he rocked), went Halloween on Erislandy Lara. “BoOm!”, a short and compact left hook leveled the Cuban craftsman, in a way that felt like “finally.” Bleeding, battered, discombobulated and possibly on the verge of disemboweled, a not-exactly-unbowed Lara wasn't exactly given The Long Count” by Kenny Bayless, but Jack Dempsey would've thought it was cute.
*** *** ***
He survived the final seconds and died a few minutes later, when the judges– influenced by the shot more or less hurled around the ring from a violent stereo system named Hurd (22-0, 15KOs), saw enough to award him the WBA super welterweight belt via razor thin SD (I had it 114-112 Hurd). He is now the new WBA, IBF and IBO super welterweight champion—and sounded like it.
“Swift isn’t ducking anyone, “said Hurd, after hearing questions about WBC super welterweight champion Jermell Charlo and looking directly at him seated ringside. “I’m No.1 now. We’re calling the shots.”
“I know what he possesses. Jarrett Hurd gotta get his defense together, because there's no way he can get like that by me,” said Charlo, dead-ass convinced he’ll murder Hurd. I don’t know about that. Seated at ringside in the same row, was former pound-for-pound all-time great Floyd Mayweather and the world’s best welterweight in reigning IBF champion Errol Spence Jr, and their body language in examining Hurd was telling. They think it would be a long night for Charlo—who may find out that he’s not the second coming of Julian Jackson just yet.
In “Pink Floyd” (sporting a natty red top hat, white t-shirt and gray dinner jacket), he could look at Lara and all that he was going through, to revisit why he never wanted to face Antonio Margarito. Who cares what he does in the UFC to embarrass himself and boxing, it was nice to know that TMT is giving Gervonta “Tank” Davis a chance to find out about himself against Vasyl Lomachenko. There was an unbottled Badou Jack present; just waiting to be shaken like Coke soda and forcibly opened up by Adonis “Superman” Stevenson on 5/19 in Montreal. With Broner V Vargas coming up on April 21 – with Vargas in attendance last night, it was good to see Floyd helping the sport and a new generation of stars.
Spence (returning to action on June 9th in Dallas), the future of boxing and that’s just “The Truth”, could see that he (or anyone else) would have to be very careful and economical with Hurd, who’s essentially a piece of aggressive furniture very hard to U-Haul. For Jermell Charlo, to be seated next to “Money” and Errol Spence — while watching the likes of Caleb Truax battle (and lose to via narrow UD) the Praying Mantis that is James DeGale, and then getting a personal analysis on Hurd from 3 different perspectives (including his own, he already knew about Lara) …all of that has to be considered invaluable. I like how Showtime tied all of this together, while even managing to plug Jermall Charlo V Hugo Centeno Jr on that April 21 card in Brooklyn. But in so many ways, as was the case with last October 14, Hurd was The Man on this night. He does have balance issues, and there may not appear to be much subtlety or speed (I really don’t understand where “Swift” comes from at all, Jarrett Hurd is not fast or swift), but Hurd’s game is ruthlessly daring and intellectually methodical.
*** *** ***
You watch Hurd, and you’ll catch him doing really basic things with a lot of balls. Everything is predicated on what he’s trying to do, when he wants to. He did something no southpaw would like—he kept walking with authority to the right direction (to his left, he kept walking toward 10am); cutting off a naturally desired route of Lara’s. He did this while absolutely not giving a shit about anything in Lara’s arsenal, or even caring if he was “first” or not.
Despite anything you may hear to the contrary, Hurd doesn’t care about anyone else’s game plan except his own. He doesn’t care about your pedigree or the power you’re supposed to have. He simply believes he’ll take his immensely brawn physicality (which is really a psychopathic form of George Foremen in the ring folks, let’s face it) and turn anyone into a ring casualty. I could see Jermell Charlo surrounded by IV’s and nervous nurses in the back of an ambulance because of Hurd if he’s not careful. A trainer like Derrick James definitely knows this, and would subject Charlo to the worst physical training camp of his life to fight Jarrett Hurd. With that being the case, it would most likely turn into a more competitive Spence V Peterson.
“Lara hit him a lot tonight. If that's me, no way he can survive,” said Charlo, a fired up WBC super welterweight champion. “Lara has lost a little movement; if he had the same movement he had for Canelo, he would have won. But God has a plan…he didn't want us fighting each other.”
So…. maybe the Devil wants Charlo V Hurd and I’m OK with that. That’s a hell of a fight.
