By: Hans Themistode
At one point, a Jr middleweight showdown between former unified champion Jarrett Hurd and current three belt holder Jermell Charlo was the fight every fan was craving.
Roughly two years ago, both fighters were undefeated champions and regarded as the best in the division. Since then however, they have both suffered defeats. For Charlo, his came at the hands of Tony Harrison in December of 2018, although he did avenge that loss one year later. And for Hurd, his defeat came at the hands of Julian Williams in May of 2019.
Despite the speed bumps, Hurd (24-1, 16 KOs) still believes both he and Charlo are the best the 154-pound division has to offer and still desperately wants to prove that he was always better than his long-time rival.
“I really want the Charlo fight man,” said Hurd on the PBC podcast recently. “It’s still a lot of unanswered questions of who’s really the best at 154 until we face each other.”
Regardless of what he believes, Hurd knows good and well that another fighter could be prioritized before him. That would be, newly minted WBO champion Brian Castano. The Argentine native truncated the short title reign of Patrick Teixeira approximately one month ago and immediately called for an undisputed showdown with Charlo.
With the opportunity to grab every world title in the division, Charlo is most likely to go in that direction. But while Hurd is fully aware of the importance of an undisputed 154-pound champion, the Maryland native firmly believes that even a contest of that magnitude would fall short of the excitement a matchup between himself and Charlo would bring to the table.
“Even though Brian Castano has the title and it could be an undisputed champion at 154 but to be honest, the biggest fight at 154 is me vs Jermell Charlo. Hopefully, we can fight this year.”
In terms of what could possibly be next for Hurd if Charlo does elect to go down the undisputed route, the former unified champion has no idea. In fact, he isn’t even sure when he will make his return to the ring.
Whenever he does get the call though, he’s hoping that the first name presented to him will be Julian Williams.
“I haven’t gotten any exact dates but I’ve been talking to Al (Haymon). He’s trying to put me on some cards and have me as the main event. He’s trying to put something together for me but he hasn’t been able to get an exact date but he’s been telling me to just stay ready. So that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. I’m just hoping that I get my rematch with Julian Williams.”