1 fighter to watch on the Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul card

A lot is going on surrounding the Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul storylines, but Jarrett Hurd is the fighter whose performance you should study. 

The oddity of Floyd Mayweather Jr. sharing the ring with Logan Paul is what people are paying to see on Sunday, June 6, but from a boxing purist’s perspective, all eyes should be on former super welterweight champion Jarrett Hurd.

Hurd (24-1, 16 KOs) controlled the super welterweight division for two years and held the IBF, IBO, and WBA titles. He secured impressive wins over Tony Harrison, Erislandy Lara, and Austin Trout. Hurd looked poised to become an undisputed champion, but Julian Williams changed all that.

At 5-foot-11, Hurd is large for the division and is used to pushing other boxers around the ring. He had an aggressive, fan-pleasing style. Hurd was willing to walk through fire to deliver his punches and was prone to letting his hands go, but the roles were reversed in May of 2019 against Williams.

Williams had Hurd fighting off his back foot. Although Hurd still produced a high punch output, Williams landed more punches, according to CompuBox stats. Hurd also appeared to fade in the later rounds, and his endurance looked zapped. Williams won by unanimous decision, and Hurd has only fought once since.

Hurd has been out of the ring since January of 2020. He switched trainers and is now working with Kay Koroma. Hurd didn’t look stellar against Francisco Santana, but he got the win. Hurd told FanSided in a previous media call that he experimented with some new elements in that fight.

Jarrett Hurd has many questions that need answering when he fights Luis Arias on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul

“I also, after my loss tried to go back and look at things that I had bad habits on,” said Hurd. “I was just a straightforward come-at-you guy who walks you down and try to break you down. This fight I wanted to implement that I could box. That I could move around. That I could use my height and range If I needed to.”

Hurd admitted that the plan for the Santana fight was to box all 10 rounds no matter what. He did that but looked unspectacular doing it. The question now is can Hurd find a way to infuse a new boxing skillset into his old offensive base?

Hurd was more cautious in the Santana fight. He needs to find a balance between boxing more and pushing the pace like he once did. Boxing is great, but Hurd needs to find a way to be more defensive without sacrificing his arsenal. What made Hurd special was his ability to throw hands without tiring. He looked plenty tired against Williams and took too much punishment in the process.

Hurd still isn’t in his best shape. He is fighting Luis Arias at middleweight on the Mayweather vs. Paul undercard. He plans on campaigning at super welterweight once again, but it doesn’t matter if he can’t get his groove back.

Will Hurd look improved against Arias, or will he lack the intangibles that made him a world champion? Tune into Showtime pay-per-view on June 6 to find out.