By Lem Satterfield
IBF, IBO and WBA junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd envisions a 154-pound clash with left-handed IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence in the distant future, but Spence doesn’t believe Hurd will get beyond a potential unification bout against WBC 154-pound counterpart Jermell Charlo, his training stablemate.
Hurd (22-0, 15 KOs) will make his third defense against England’s Jason Welborn (24-6, 7 KOs) on the December 1 undercard of Deontay Wilder’s heavyweight title defense against lineal champion Tyson Fury at The Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Spence (24-0, 21 KOs) shares corner man Derrick James with and often spars Charlo (31-0, 15 KOs) at the Dallas-based R&R Boxing facility.
After defeating Welborn, Hurd plans to be ringside on December 22 at Barlcays Center in Brooklyn, New York, where Charlo pursues his fourth defense against repeat title challenger Tony Harrison (27-2, 21 KOs).
“I’ve seen interviews where Errol Spence has said that ‘when I move up, I want to go straight for the gold,’ meaning he wants to go straight for the titles,” said Hurd during a recent interview with BoxingScene.com.
“A fight with Errol Spence is definitely something I’ve often thought about. Right now, I think it would make sense for me against Errol Spence to happen at 154, and that’s a fight that I would like to take.”
In his last fight in June, Spence scored his 11th straight knockout with a first-round body shot that dropped and stopped Carlos Ocampo (23-1, 14 KOs) at The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, the Dallas Cowboys’ training center near his hometown of DeSoto. Ocampo represented Spence’s second defense of the crown he won in May 2017 by two-knockdown, 11th-round KO of Kell Brook in England.
Spence has been linked to a potential clash with four-division champion Mikey Garcia (39-0, 30 KOs), who is firmly committed to rising in weight to face him, and desires unification bouts with counterparts Keith Thurman (WBA), Shawn Porter (WBC) and Terence Crawford (WBO).
“That’s [Hurd] a fight I’d definitely entertain, but my training partner and longtime friend, Jermell, has his eyes on Jarrett Hurd. They’re both in the same weight class, so I definitely wouldn’t’ step on Jermell’s toes with him being my stablemate,” said Spence, who, like Charlo and Hurd is 28 years old, to BoxingScene.com.
“If at some point Jarrett and I are in the same weight class, then I would definitely take that fight. But that’s a fight that Jermell really wants and a fight that he’s really been talking about. So I wouldn’t step on his toes. I’d let him have that fight because I’ve got plenty of business to take care of in my own weight class at 147.”
Spence gives Charlo the nod against Hurd, who defeated Harrison for the vacant crown by ninth-round TKO in February 2017 before defending it at Barclays Center in October 2017 with a 10th-round TKO over left-handed former titleholder Austin Trout.
Stopped for the first time in his career by Hurd, Trout rebounded with a unanimous decision victory over Juan DeAngel in February before losing by two knockdown majority decision in Charlo’s last fight in June at Staples Center.
On the same card where Hurd vanquished Trout, Charlo made his second defense by sensational first-round stoppage over previously unbeaten southpaw Erickson Lubin.
“They both have common opponents for the last couple of fights with Tony Harrison and Austin Trout, so that fight should happen ASAP. I do see Jermell and Jarrett fighting in the future since they’re both on the same networks and they have the same [advisor,]” said Spence.
“I see that fight happening sometime next year, and I see Jermell beating him. But if the circumstances come up where a fight between Jarrett Hurd and myself could happen, and he has all of the belts at 154, then I would definitely take that fight. But again, I don’t see Jarrett Hurd getting past Jermell Charlo. I see Jermell taking all of his belts.”
