Jarrett Hurd's next junior middleweight title defense could also be a homecoming fight.
A report from The Ring stated that there are plans in place to have Hurd, the IBF and WBA "Super" titleholders, fight Julian Williams sometime next spring. The fight has yet to be officially made as both sides are still looking at dates, with two of them being prime targets: April 27 and May 11.
There is also the matter of what network will televise the fight as both Fox and Showtime have broadcast deals with PBC. Fox had already previously announced that it will have a PBC card on May 11, but no fight has yet to be announced for that date. Meanwhile, Showtime does not have many fights announced on their network for 2019 as the only telecast to feature a world title fight it has scheduled for now is the February 9 show in California, headlined by Gervonta Davis vs. Abner Mares for the WBA "Super" super featherweight title.
The location of the fight also needs to be finalized as there are two possible candidates as well. The first is the Barclays Center in New York, which has a longstanding and now-exclusive working relationship with PBC. The second is in the Washington D.C. area, which would be a hometown fight for Hurd, but Stephen Edwards, Williams' trainer/manager, told The Ring that "concessions must be made" in order to make the fight a hometown return for the champion.
Hurd will be making his second unified title defense since winning the WBA belt in spring 2018 when he defeated Erislandy Lara. Hurd was out of action for several months as he recovered from surgery, but returned to action in December on the Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury pay-per-view. On that card, Hurd knocked out Jason Welborn in the fourth round.
Williams, the No. 1 contender for the IBF title and No. 4 contender for the WBA title, has won four straight fights since his only professional loss. In 2016, Williams was knocked out by Jermall Charlo in the fifth round of their title bout in Los Angeles.
