IBF junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd is on a mission to unify the division - and the first target on his list is WBA, IBO world champion Erislandy Lara.
In October, a tripleheader took place with Hurd (21-0, 15 KOs), Lara (25-2-2, 14 KOs) and WBC champion Jermell Charlo (30-0, 15 KOs) making defenses at at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Hurd became the first man to stop Austin Trout, while Lara dominated Olympian Terrell Gausha, and Charlo blew away Erickson Lubin in one round.
Lara has been complaining for a long time that everyone in the division is avoiding him, so Hurd is ready to answer than call.
Hurd is hoping the contest can be made in the next few months. Both boxers are managed by Al Haymon and fight under the Premier Boxing Champions banner - making the contest easy to make.
Neither champion has a mandatory obligation at the moment. Hurd was ordered to fight Cedric Vitu, but Vitu elected to accept a fight with Brian Castano.
“Erislandy Lara’s the best at 154, and he’s saying no one else wants to fight him. Well, I wanna fight him. I’ve stopped my last seven opponents, and I know I can beat Lara, so I’d like to fight Lara, next, and to see it happen in April or May," Hurd told Premier Boxing Champions.
He believes Trout was the perfect opponent to get ready for Lara. The Cuban boxer holds a decision win over Trout.
“I feel like Trout was the perfect fight for me to prepare for Lara, being that it serves as the natural transition to assimilate and go from one southpaw to another,” said Hurd.
“I’m a guy who is still learning and not at my best…I’m still living with my parents. But we’re talking about building my own house from scratch, which takes about 10 weeks, so we’re probably looking at sometime this summer, maybe after the Lara fight. I want to face the best in order to become the best, and Lara’s the best in our division.”