Notebook: Hurd fighting at 160 pounds, but he insists he has unfinished business at 154

Plenty of Quick hits; double Show and tell

While many fighters were frustrated by long layoffs caused by the coronavirus pandemic, former unified junior middleweight world titlist Jarrett Hurd was not one of them.

“I haven’t fought in a year and a half, so I had a chance to really take my time with this camp,” Hurd said. “I’ve had a lot of time to put in the work. I’m training with fighters like Terence Crawford, Shakur Stevenson, Troy Isley and a lot more. We’re all out here working day after day.”

Hurd, who lost his father Fred Hurd Sr. to Covid-19 at age 63 on March 11, will return from the long layoff to face Luis Arias in a 10-round middleweight bout on the undercard of the exhibition between Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul on Sunday (Showtime PPV, $49.99, 8 p.m. ET) at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

After Hurd lost his two belts by upset unanimous decision to Julian “J Rock” Williams in a home region fight in May 2019, Hurd returned eight months later to handily outpoint Francisco Santana in his first fight with trainer Kay Koroma after paring ways with longtime trainer Ernesto Rodriguez.

The 30-year-old Hurd (24-1, 16 KOs), of Accokeek, Maryland, hoped the victory over Santana would kick start another run to a world title, but then the pandemic knocked those plans off course and he has not fought since.

So, now he will look to ignite things once again against Arias (18-2-1, 9 KOs), 30, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who is 0-2-1 in his last three fights. He hasn’t fought since dropping a decision to Luke Keeler in August 2019 with a draw against Gabriel Rosado and a decision loss to Daniel Jacobs preceding the Keeler bout.

Hurd said he is expecting Arias to make it a shootout.

“This is going to be the type of toe-to-toe fight I like,” said Hurd, who outpointed Erislandy Lara to unify two junior middleweight titles in the 2018 fight of the year. “He’s going to be there in front of me and ready to fight. He’s never been stopped, so I’ll be prepared to go the distance.

“He might think he’s catching me at the right time, but it’s not going to be a good time for him on (Sunday). I can box and I can bang, it doesn’t matter. We’ll decide on fight night which style I’m going to use. I know that I can beat him either way.”

Although the fight is at middleweight, Hurd said he will return to junior middleweight. Given the long layoff and that it’s not a title fight he felt there was no need to sweat all the way down to 154 pounds.

“I still have too much unfinished business at 154 pounds,” Hurd said. “I have a lot of fights, including my rematch against Julian Williams, that I still want to get. I want to regain my titles. Me and Jermell Charlo is probably the biggest fight at 154 right now. I want to handle that before I move up in weight.”

Williams lost the titles to Jeison Rosario, who then got knocked out by Charlo in the eighth round of their three-belt unification bout in September. Charlo next fights Brian Castano, holder of the fourth major belt, for the undisputed title on July 17. Hurd could put himself in position to fight the winner with a strong outing Sunday.

“I just need a dominant win,” Hurd said. “Luis Arias can make it ugly, but I have to go win convincingly and let everyone know I’m back. I don’t want to win in a sloppy way. I want to look good doing it.”

Quick hits

The Premier Boxing Champions card on Fox on June 27 at the Armory in Minneapolis will be headlined by David Morrell defending his secondary super middleweight belt against Mario Cazares, sources told Fight Freaks Unite. Morrell (4-0, 3 KOs), 23, a Cuba native fighting out of Minneapolis, will be making his first defense. At first there was discussion he would face England’s John Ryder but instead Cazares (12-0, 5 KOs), 30, of Mexico, got the fight. He is coming off a sixth-round technical decision win over former middleweight titlist Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in September.

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Triller Fight Club on Wednesday announced the preliminary fight lineup for the Teofimo Lopez-George Kambosos Jr. card on June 19 (PPV and FITE, $49.99, 9 p.m. ET) at loanDepot Park in Miami. Besides the PPV lineup, there are several fights on the “free view” beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET. Among them are junior middleweight and 2016 U.S. Olympian Charles Conwell, (14-0, 11 KOs) versus Mark DeLuca, (27-2, 15 KOs) in a 10-rounder; two-time middleweight title challenger Willie Monroe Jr. (24-3, 6 KOs) versus Juan De Angel over 10 rounds; Chinese heavyweight Zhilei Zhang (21-0-1, 17 KOs), coming off a draw he barely survived against Jerry Forrest on Feb. 27, against journeyman Daniel Martz, (20-9-1, 17 KOs) in a 10-rounder and junior welterweight prospect Aaron Aponte (3-0, 1 KO) against Gerardo Contreras Gonzalez, (2-0, 1 KO) in a four-rounder.

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Welterweight Daniyar Yeleussinov (10-0, 6 KOs), 30, a 2016 Olympic gold medalist from Kazakhstan, is now a promotional free agent after his contract with Matchroom Boxing, which promoted him since his 2018 pro debut, expired. “We would like to thank Matchroom Boxing for bringing Daniyar to this point of his career. We are seeking the best option for Daniyar so he can be properly marketed and moved to the top of the welterweight division,” said Elvis Crespo, CEO of Boxing Stars Management. “Daniyar is a top talent, and has shown that he is a force to be reckoned with and is a future world champion.” Said Yeleussinov, who is coming off a second-round knockout of former unified junior welterweight titlist Julius Indongo in November, “I look forward to signing with a new promoter and they can help on my journey to reach that championship goal.”

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The IBF has scheduled a purse bid for June 15 for a super middleweight title elimination bout between Russian countrymen Evgeny Shvedenko (15-0, 6 KOs), 30, and Detroit-based Vladimir Shishkin (12-0, 7 KOs), 29. If the fight takes place the winner will become the mandatory challenger for titleholder Caleb Plant. Facher Sport Management, which represents Shvedenko, and Salita Promotions, which promotes Shishkin, can still make a deal up to 15 minutes before the bids are unsealed. The purse split is 50-50.

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Star Boxing promoter Joe DeGuardia, who has not put on his own event since February 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, will finally see the return of his popular club show at the Paramount in Huntington, New York, on Long Island. DeGuardia told Fight Freaks Unite he has booked a card there for Sept. 4. “I’m very happy,” DeGuardia said. “The Paramount is probably the top club venue in the country, so it was disappointing we couldn’t be there. We are very excited to go back. There are so many people that it will be great to see again and have a good time with. I’m looking forward to it. The fighters love it there and they’ll also be excited to be back.”

Show and tell

As Manny Pacquiao fights go it was not all that high profile. That was when, coming off his controversial loss to Jeff Horn in Australia in 2017 in his final fight with Top Rank and before he joined Premier Boxing Champion in 2019, Pacquiao’s own MP Promotions promoted his fight with Lucas Matthysse in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. There were many that thought Pacquiao was done after the Horn fight, and the fight with Matthysse, although for a secondary welterweight belt, was a mere afterthought. But Pacquiao looked terrific. He knocked Matthysse out in the seventh round on July 15, 2018 and sent him into retirement. Pacquiao would go on to rout Adrien Broner and score a huge win to claim a welterweight title against Keith Thurman in 2019 and is now set for another really big fight in August against Errol Spence Jr. I’ve collected stuff from Pacquiao fights for about 20 years and have amassed a very large collection. As far as I know there was no program or poster for the Matthysse fight — if you know otherwise let me know in the comments! — but I was able to add two very nice items from the fight to my collection, a complete press kit with fight art on the front of the four-pocket folder and full mint ticket.

Hurd photo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime