By Ian S Palmer
Former IBF, IBO, and WBA Jr. Middleweight Champion Jarrett Hurd of Maryland, USA will be back in the ring this Saturday, January 25th when he takes on Francisco Santana of Santa Barbara, California. The 12-round bout can be seen live in America on Showtime from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York while Canadian fans can catch it on TSN 1 and those in the UK can see it on BoxNation. Hurd lost his titles via a unanimous decision to Julian Williams last May while Santana dropped a 10-round unanimous decision to Abel Ramos in March.
The 29-year-old Hurd won the vacant IBF title in February, 2017 when he stopped Tony Harrison in the ninth round and defended it for the first time against Austin Trout eight months later when Trout couldn’t come out for the 11th round. Hurd won the IBO and WBA crowns by beating Erislandy Lara by split decision in April, 2018 and then defended all the titles against Jason Welborn by fourth-round stoppage in December, 2018 before running into Williams.
Hurd turned pro back in 2012 after going 32-8 as an amateur and has 126 rounds of experience since then. He’s a former three-time Golden Gloves winner in Washington D.C and has managed to beat opponents such as Lara, Harrison, Trout, Ionut Dan Ion, Oscar Molina, Frank Galarza and Eric Mitchell. What Hurd also has going for him right now is pretty good power with a knockout ratio of 66.7 per cent. He stands 6-feet-1-inch tall with a reach of 76.5 inches and was decked in the second round by Williams last May.
Hurd is a relatively low key and somewhat underrated boxer who is quite fan friendly due to his aggressive style in the ring. His bout against Lara in 2018 was one of the best of the year and he managed to drop the former champion in the 12th round to insure the victory. His contest against Williams last year was also an entertaining and raucous affair. Hurd’s pretty tall for a junior middleweight and is just as comfortable at brawling as he is at boxing.
As for Santana, he’s 33 years old and owns a fine record of 27-7-1 with 12 Kos to his name. He has a pretty solid chin though as he’s been stopped just once and that came at the hands of Karim Mayfield in the fifth round back in 2009. His other losses were by six-round split decision to Mayfield a year earlier, an eight-round unanimous decision to Jermell Charlo in 2011, a 10-round unanimous decision to Sadam Ali in 2015, a 10-round unanimous decision to Jose Benavidez Jr in 2016, a 10-round split decision to Mahonri Montes in 2017 and the defeat to Ramos last March.
His draw was a six-rounder against Julian Williams back in 2011. Santana has lost three of the last four and four of his last eight fights. However, he’s faced some good boxers over the years but has always fallen just short when stepping up in class. His best wins have been over Felix Diaz in 2018, Ed Paredes in 2016, Joachim Alcine in 2013 as well as Freddy Hernandez in 2013. He also captured the vacant WBA International Welterweight Title by stopping Kendal Mena in 103 seconds in 2015.
Santana doesn’t have much in the way of power though with a current knockout ratio of 36.4 per cent in his 185 rounds since turning pro in 2005. He stands 5-feet-9 inches tall with a reach of 72 inches which makes him four inches shorter than Hurd with a 4.5-inch reach disadvantage. Santana’s a solid pro but he’s fought most of his career as a welterweight. He’s quite a bit smaller than Hurd and his lack of power means he’s more or less a hand-picked tune-up opponent for the former champion.
Prediction…
Hurd’s motivated to get another title shot and the door could be wide open with Julian Williams losing his WBA and IBF titles to Jeison Rosario by fifth-round stoppage in his hometown of Philadelphia last weekend. Williams may get a rematch but Hurd’s ready for a title shot at any time as long as he gets past Santana, which he should do on Saturday night.
