By Ian S Palmer
Former IBF, IBO, and WBA Jr. Middleweight Champion Jarrett Hurd of Maryland, USA will be back in the ring this Sunday, June 6th when he takes on Luis Arias of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The 10-round junior middleweight bout can be seen live on pay-per-view on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather vs Logan Paul event. Hurd lost his titles via a unanimous decision to Julian Williams in May, 2019 then beat Francisco Santana in his last bout by 10-round unanimous decision. Arias last boxed in August, 2019 when he dropped a 10-round decision to Luke Keeler.
The 30-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 136 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 Santana, 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 64 per cent. He stands just under 6-feet-tall with a reach of 78 inches.
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 and he had to pick himself up from the canvas in the second round. Hurd’s just as comfortable at brawling as he is at boxing.
Arias is 30 years old and has boxed 124 rounds since turning pro in 2012. He enjoyed a fine amateur career with a record of 140-25 and was a national champion in the middleweight division. Arias gives up a little bit in height as he’s 5-foot-11, but has an unlisted reach. He’s not known as a power puncher as he has a current knockout ratio of 40.9 per cent. He does have a fine record though as he’ll climb into the ring with a mark of 18-2-1 with 9 Kos.
Arias’ first pro loss came at the hands of Daniel Jacobs in 2017 when he dropped a 12-round unanimous decision. He then fought Gabriel Rosado to a 12-round draw for the interim WBO Latino Middleweight Title. Arias possesses good boxing skills as well as a solid chin but fell just short when stepping up in class against Jacobs and Rosado.
Other than those two opponents, he hasn’t faced any other top opposition. His biggest wins up to date have been against the likes of Scott Sigmon, Jorge Silva, Tony Brinson and Dionisio Miranda. His career highlight is a fourth-round TKO over Darryl Cunningham in August of 2016. Arias was confident of doing well against Jacobs and believed a win would vault him into a serious top-10 contender, but he lost by scores of 118-109, 119-108 and 120-07 while looking ineffective for the majority of the fight.
Prediction…
Hurd’s motivated to get another title shot and he has to take care of arias to get one. Julian Williams lost his WBA and IBF titles to Jeison Rosario by fifth-round stoppage in January, 2020 and Rosario was then stopped by Jermell Charlo eight months later so Hurd isn’t really interested in a rematch with Williams at the moment as it’s Charlo he’d like to face. Of course, Hurd needs to get past Arias on Sunday night and that i believe he should do.
