On Saturday, April 7, 2018, Jarrett Hurd (22-0, 15 KOs) pulled out a split-decision victory in a fight of the year candidate over WBA and IBO champion, Erislandy Lara (25-3-2, 14 KOs).
All three scorecards read 114-113, one in favor of Lara, and two in favor of the victor Hurd.
Hurd wanted to bring the fight to the elusive Lara for 12 rounds and did exactly that. He threw 824 punches, landing 217 of them. His pressure was relentless, it never stopped and it bothered Lara the entire fight.
The fight was action packed for 12 rounds. The key to Hurd’s victory was the 12th round knockdown with a right uppercut and short left hook combination.
.@Swift_JHurd sends @Laraboxing to the canvas in round 12! #LaraHurd pic.twitter.com/b5zYLa7AMr
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) April 8, 2018
Lara impressed and would’ve beat any other Super Welterweight outside of Jermell Charlo with the performance he put on Saturday night. The problem was Hurd’s size, and style that Lara just couldn’t get away from.
Lara threw 524 punches, mainly his jab and a straight left that connected all night. He couldn’t get Hurd to stop his forward progress, Hurd walked through everything Lara threw.
Lara seemed to tire out around the eighth round and on. Rounds 8 through 12 took a tremendous toll on Lara. As a result, he stopped his movement and starting trading punches with Hurd.
“Besides the last round, I thought I was winning this fight easily,” said Lara. “That’s not to decide the fight. I was winning the fight. One punch in a fight doesn’t determine the fight.”
While he felt he did enough even with the knockdown, the judges scored otherwise.
Hurd stated in the post-fight interview, “I went out there and did exactly what I said I was going to do.”
With the victory, Hurd put the Super Welterweight division on notice. “Swift isn’t ducking anyone,” said Hurd. “I’m No. 1 now. We’re calling the shots.”
Jarrett Hurd now holds the keys to the 154-pound division. A future fight with Jermell Charlo is inevitable, or a possible rematch with Erislandy Lara.
Header photo by Stephanie Trapp/Showtime
