By Frank Bartolini

This Saturday night in Fairfax, VA , at the EagleBank Jarrett “Swift”Hurd of Washington DC, returns home to defend his IBF & WBO Super Welterweight belts against Julian “J Roc” Williams.

Entering the tiger’s lair of frenzied     DMV(DC, Maryland, Virginia) fight fans, William’s appears to be Hurd’s toughest opponent to date. It has been two and a half years since Williams suffered the lone loss of his twenty eight fight career. That defeat came at the hands of than IBF Super Middleweight king Jermall Charlo Via fifth round kayo when “J Roc” s challenged for that title.  

Over the course of his nine year career Williams has established himself as a take on all comers boxer. Because of this Williams has the best resume’ of any combatant that Hurd has faced. Born and bred in Philadelphia, which is two hour Amtrak train ride  away from  Fairfax VA, Williams is a decided underdog. Being from one of the toughest fight scenes in the world Williams effort will not be detoured by unfavorable odds and boisterous hometown supporters.

Even Philly’s most prolific boxing scribe Ken Hissner of Boxinginsider.com thinks the cards are stacked against  Williams saying “I thought J Roc would win the first time he challenged for a title but the Philly Jinx happened. J Roc isn’t beating Hurd”.  

Not at all overconfident Hurd is not taking his challenger lightly and is still hashing out his strategy. “It’s hard to tell what type of fight it’s going to be. I want to say he’s going to try to box and get through the twelve rounds”.

It is likely Hurd will employ his usual style of moving forward behind his jab stepping aside and uncorking combinations. Eventually Hurd wears down his opponents due to his size and strength. Using these tactics Hurd gets to his opponents the second half of contests.

Addressing the shoulder surgery that saw Hurd sit out for eight months in 2018 he said “I feel strong and my shoulder is one hundred percent. During training, I forgot I even had surgery”   In hopes of a homecoming celebration  Hurd said “ I’ve got the city behind me and I couldn’t be happier about that”  Meanwhile Williams has plans on ruining that party.

 The match will air live nationally prime time on  television on Saturday night with the Fox Network broadcasting it.

Photo courtesy of PBC