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Hurd: It's Crazy That Knockdown Was the Difference on Scorecards
By Keith Idec
Tears of joy began flowing from Jarrett Hurd’s eyes as soon as Jimmy Lennon Jr. uttered the word “Swift” after reading the scores Saturday night in Las Vegas.
That emotional moment briefly overwhelmed Hurd, who realized he had just beaten the opponent who was widely viewed as the best boxer in their weight class. Hurd couldn’t understand afterward, though, how he came so close to hearing Lara’s name announced as the winner of their 12-round, 154-pound title unification fight.
Hurd thinks he did enough to deserve a more convincing victory over Lara than the split-decision win that’s on his unblemished record (22-0, 15 KOs). The knockdown Hurd scored late in the 12th round emerged as the difference between him adding Lara’s WBA and IBO super welterweight titles to his IBF junior middleweight championship and settling for a majority draw.
hurd-lara-fight (31)
Had Hurd failed to floor Lara before their closely contested battle concluded, judges Glenn Feldman and Dave Moretti would’ve scored it even.
Instead, Feldman and Moretti scored their fight for Hurd by the same score, 114-113. Judge Burt Clement credited Lara with a 114-113 win.
“That’s crazy to me,” Hurd said. “I felt like I was up on all the cards, you know, I was winning each round. And, you know, the fact that the knockdown was the deciding factor, man, that’s crazy.”
Showtime’s Steve Farhood scored the fight for Lara (114-113), who was ahead on all three official scorecards entering the 12th round.
The network’s unofficial punch statistics favored Hurd for landing more overall punches, 41 more than Lara (217-of-824 to 176-of-572). According to those stats, Hurd connected with more power punches (186-of-641 to 123-of-267) and Lara landed more jabs (53-of-305 to 31-of-183).
Hurd didn’t feel like he needed a knockdown to win when the 12th round began because he thought he had a comfortable lead on the cards.
“He didn’t actually say that,” Hurd said, referring to his trainer, Ernesto Rodriguez. “I felt like we was up. The knockdown just came natural. But at the end of the day, we still wanted to finish strong and I’m glad I came out that way in the 12th round.”
Naturally, Lara feels all three judges should’ve scored him the winner.
“Besides that I [got knocked down] in the last round, I felt I was winning this fight easily,” Lara said. “But that doesn’t decide the fight, because I was winning the fight. One punch in a fight doesn’t determine the fight.”
The Cuban southpaw wants a rematch, but Hurd doesn’t feel a second bout between them is necessary because he feels he clearly defeated Lara (25-3-2, 14 KOs). Hurd, of Accokeek, Maryland, instead intends to purse another title unification fight with WBC super welterweight champ Jermell Charlo, assuming Houston’s Charlo (30-0, 15 KOs) wins against an undetermined opponent June 9 in Los Angeles. |
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2023-10-20 19:02:47
