Julian Williams shook the junior middleweight division down to its core with a stunning upset win over Jarrett Hurd.
In the main event of a PBC on Fox card from Fairfax, Virginia, Williams dominated Hurd to win a 12-round decision to capture the WBA and IBF junior middleweight titles. Williams won with scores of 116-111, 115-112, 115-112.
Things started off tremendously for Williams as he scored a big left hook upstairs to drop Hurd in the second round. Hurd managed to get back up and what followed was a thrilling back-and-forth contest that saw both men get rocked by each other's best punches. In the third round, Hurd landed a big uppercut that hurt Williams, but Williams recovered and landed another left hand to stun the now-former champion. As the fight progressed, the two fighters would trade blows until the end of the bout.
Williams is the latest fighter to capture a world title at 154 pounds in recent months. Six months ago, many believed that Hurd and Jermell Charlo were on a collision course for a three-belt unification, but since then, Charlo lost his WBC title to Tony Harrison and now Williams captured the WBA and IBF titles.
Hurd's reign as the unified champion ends after 13 months. Hurd held the IBF title since 2017 when he beat Harrison. The 28-year-old Hurd won the WBA title when he defeated Erislandy Lara in April 2018 and later defended the two titles in December with a knockout win over Jason Welborn.
The fight was supposed to be a homecoming for Hurd, who grew up near the area, but it quickly turned into a nightmare. Now Hurd will look to enact a rematch clause in the contract both fighters signed and Williams' team say they will be more than happy to give Hurd that rematch.
This was Williams' second crack at a world title after coming up short in 2016. Since then, Williams won his next four fights to set up the title fight against Hurd. Williams recently told Fightful that he was just as hungry to win a world title as he was back in 2016 and with the added experience, proved that he was ready to take over the entire division.
