The last time we saw Jarrett Hurd in the ring he was humbled.
Julian Williams, the superior, more-polished boxer, destroyed in one fight the perception that the then-unbeaten Hurd was a force of nature, a big, strong bruiser who tended to start slowly but whose opponents would eventually wilt under his relentless pressure.
Williams won a unanimous decision to take Hurd’s junior middleweight titles and send him back to the drawing board this past May.
That included a change of trainers, from longtime mentor Ernesto Rodriguez to Kay Koroma, with whom he’s worked in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Koroma is an assistant coach with the USA national boxing team. And while Hurd could’ve jumped back into the ring with Williams, he decided to take things more slowly.
Hurd (23-1, 16 KOs) will face veteran Francisco Santana (25-7-1, 12 KOs) on the Danny Garcia-Ivan Redkach card Saturday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Showtime.
“I’m so focused on taking care of Francisco Santana,” Hurd said. “I can’t look past him. He’s a guy who comes forward. This is a fight where I want to see how things work out with my new trainer Kay Koroma, but Santana comes to fight just like Jeison Rosario did (in a victory over Williams). I have to be on my toes.”
Hurd acknowledges what seemed evident against Williams, that he relied too much on physical pressure and punch volume to win fights.
In retrospect, it’s easy to see that at some point he was bound to run into an exceptional, resourceful boxer who could withstand his physical strength and work rate and outpoint him. That’s what happened against Williams, who put Hurd down in Round 2 and won by scores of 116-111, 115-112, 115-112.
“People say this is the new Jarrett, but I feel like it’s the old me and I’m just getting back to it,” Hurd said. “I used my defense and my height against Frank Galarza [in 2015] and other earlier fights. But when I was training for Erislandy Lara [in 2018], I was developing this pressure style and we didn’t have enough of the fundamentals set behind it.
“I look back at my fights and it kind of scares me all the hits I was taking. I had back to back Fight of the Year battles. Those were back and forth fights. I don’t want those each and every year. I want to win in one-sided fashion.
“I was close to becoming undisputed champion at 154 pounds and that’s still a goal of mine. I want to accomplish that feat in this division before we move up. I know I had a bad night against Julian Williams, but it was just a small hiccup. I’m coming back for my number one spot.”
Koroma told the Premier Boxing Champions website that Hurd will be a better fighter because of his experience in the loss to Williams.
“I feel like he wasn’t fully prepared mentally,” Koroma said. “Mental preparation is a big thing. In this fight, he had to use his mind. It was hard for him to make the adjustments during the fight. And no offense to J-Rock; he came in there on his game. Everybody is always saying Jarrett comes from [behind] and wins in the later rounds. But a person can get in there with a game plan that says, ‘I don’t want to be the person Jarrett Hurd does that to.’
“I feel like the fight can only make Jarrett better because now he realizes he has to start faster, box more, stay off the ropes, let his hands go a little bit more. He has to be smart, he can’t be playing catch up.”
No surprise: Koroma and Hurd have focused on fundamentals in camp.
“We’ve been working on defense, so he can read when punches are coming,” Koroma said. “Being in the right position to get away from the punch but also be able to throw a counter. When to throw power, when to touch, when not to fight backwards, knowing where you are in the ring so all the judges can see you scoring.”
“Jarrett sparred right before we came to Colorado. This was the first time we left the gym to spar. I told him I wanted to see him use his jab and not go on the ropes. Jarrett did that, but also what happened was – being I didn’t fill his head up with a lot of other stuff – he started doing everything we worked on. He started countering his opponents, he didn’t throw power, he let his hands go, he slipped punches and stayed balanced. Jarrett was like, ‘I liked that.’”
Hurd gets it.
“We’ve worked a lot on fundamentals with my new trainer,” he said. “It’s not that we didn’t have them before, but we’ve focused on them much more. It’s not all about heart and will in a fight. Sometimes you have to get back to the basics.”