With three world title fights taking place under one roof on October 14, one of them was bound to be a war and Jarrett Hurd vs. Austin Trout provided the fireworks fight promoters had been promising in the build-up to fight night.
Hurd beat Trout after 10 rounds had passed by after Trout was deemed unable to continue fighting. The win was Hurd's first successful defense of his IBF junior middleweight title.
The fight got off to a solid start when Trout started outworking Hurd, but the action really picked up in round three, when both boxers spent the first minute of the round brawling. The opening to the third round sent the Barclays Center crowd into an absolute frenzy. The intense back-and-forth continued for the remainder of the fight with the crowd giving Trout and Hurd a long, standing ovation in between rounds six and seven.
Hurd suffered a nasty cut near his left eye early in the fight and it got worse as Trout kept targeting the eye. About halfway through the fight, Hurd kept bleeding until most of his face was covered in blood. Trout was also a victim of the constant punching by Hurd, causing Trout's right eye to massively swell up late in the fight. Now that Hurd has defended his title, he's now looking to unify titles at 154 pounds.
“Team Swift, we don’t run from anyone. I’m ready to unify. 2018 is the year for unifications. It doesn't matter who it is. I'm ready to fight anyone," Hurd said in the post-fight interview.
The fight was so intense, both boxers had to be taken to a nearby hospital to be evaluated. According to CompuBox, there were a total of 357 power punches landed in the fight (203 by Hurd and 154 by Trout). Hurd won the IBF title on the Deontay Wilder vs. Gerald Washington undercard back in February when he stopped Tony Harrison in the ninth round of their fight.
