Not only did both men hold two titles, they held the same two (WBA and IBF) and could have faced each other with a different result or two.
Jarrett Hurd was flying high in 2019 with two titles and wins over Erislandy Lara in a fight of the year candidate (yes, it's true Erislandy Lara and fight of the year in the same sentence), Austin Trout, and Tony Harrison had Hurd set for a Northern Virginia homecoming that was setting up for another big unification chance against Jermell Charlo.
Instead, Hurd was upset by Julian Williams and it's been all downhill ever since as Hurd lost a split decision to Luis Arias in 2021 and then was stopped in the tenth round in March 2023 to Jose Resendiz before a recent win in a squash match.
Jeison Rosario was known as a hard puncher with a questionable chin (Rosario's one loss at that time had been by sixth-round KO to veteran Nathaniel Gallimore) entering a 2020 title attempt against Julian Williams in his homecoming fight in Philadelphia (even more parallels).
Rosario shocked Williams with a fifth-round KO, taking the WBA and IBF belts, and placing himself in the title unification picture against Jermell Charlo.
Charlo would take the titles in five rounds from Rosario, and Erickson Lubin knocked Rosario out in six rounds in his next fight.
Rosario won three straight against lesser competition before Brian Mendoza stopped him in five rounds in 2022 and has one low level win since.
This brings us to tonight's fight in Florida- two former unified champions who haven't looked good in their most recent fights but perhaps could get the fire going against a veteran of their own age with struggles of their own.
Rosario's the bigger puncher but possesses the weaker chin.
Hurd has the better skills but has looked severely slowed (in other words "Swift" hasn't been speedy) since his title loss, so who really knows how this is going to play out.
Could this be an entertaining slugfest between two fighters who can't avoid the other?
Or will this be a snoozer with two faded former champions unable to fire punches and settling for clinches?
Boxing Challenge
No comments:
Post a Comment