Charlo,Hurd post impressive victories, Lara booed but wins
By Jason Gonzalez
Brooklyn---Six of the best junior middleweights in the division took center stage, in hopes of establishing a unification bout against each other in the foreseeable future. Jarrett Hurd, Austin Trout, Jermell Charlo, Erickson Lubin, Erislandy Lara, and Terrell Gausha showcased their skillset in a triple header at the Barclays Center last Saturday night.
Promoter Lou DiBella promised that there would be some clarity in the 154 pound landscape the morning of the 15th. Well, he was right. We learned that we need to pay a lot more attention to Hurd. We saw that Lubin wasn’t ready for such a big step up in class. And we confirmed that Lara should never be in a main event again, unless he has a formidable dance partner to square off with.
In the main event, Lara, a slick southpaw from Cuba, but now fighting out of Houston, Texas, won a less than scintillating unanimous decision over Gausha of Cleveland, Ohio now 20-1, (9). The scorecards read 117-110 twice, and 116-111. With the victory Lara improved to 25-2-2, (14). Setting him up for a big fight down the line.
“I am ready to box anyone that comes my way. I’m the best boxer at 154 pounds and I won’t shy away from anyone that wants to fight me,” Lara said. “I’ll box whoever, just line them up. I’m not afraid. I have proven that I’m a true champion. I’ll fight [Jermell] Charlo if I have to. We are friends, but business is business.”
The highlight of the bout came when Lara scored a knockdown in the 4th round from a left-right hand combination. Overall, it was just an awful fight were each round was a carbon copy of the last.
Most of the 7,643 that were in attendance were either exiting or had fallen asleep. In an effort to spice things up and to wake the others that napped, fans chanted a New Year’s Eve type of countdown at the end of each round, beginning at the 9th and ending in the 12th. There were also very loud chants of “This is boring,” that cascaded throughout the venue too.
In a shocker, Charlo earned the 15th knockout of his career after disposing Erickson Lubin in the first round at the 2:41 mark of the contest. Charlo, who was making the third defense of his WBC junior middleweight championship connected with a sneaky right hand that almost no one saw.
“They were giving him [Lubin] a lot of attention,” Charlo said, who has now scored two consecutive knockouts, while improving to 30-0. “They said they were going to come to take my title. I had to defend it.”
The short, subtle, and potent right hand landed flush on Lubin’s chin during the first real exchange of the contest. The punch literally left Lubin paralyzed on the canvas lying in a contorted position. To Lubin’s credit he managed to rise at the count of 8 or 9, but was in no condition to continue. So much for those comparisons to the fight between Fernando Vargas and Ronald “Winky” Wright. So much for this scrap being Lubin’s coming out party.
“I’m fine. He caught me with a blind shot,” Lubin said, of Orlando, Florida, now 18-1, (13). “I didn’t see it coming. He landed it. I felt like when I got up I could have kept fighting, but it’s boxing. It happens.”
There was a lot of trash talking between Charlo and Lubin leading up to the fight. But it was Charlo, who not only reigned supreme, but emerged as the star-attraction of the entire night. Thus distancing himself from the rest of the pack in the conference. Furthermore justifying his claim as the best in the division while putting his rivals on notice.
“Were going to unify,” The 27-year-old Charlo would say. “The other champions want to fight me and I’ll take any of them. Give me another title. I want Hurd. Hurd just won. Give me Hurd.”
The silver lining for Lubin is that he is only 22-years-old. He can comeback from this, it just depends on his mindset and level of confidence. Lubin will either be Danny Jacobs or Amir Khan for the remainder of his career.
In the opening bout of the evening, Hurd and Trout lit the arena on fire. Both combatants went ham, going tit for tat in the potential fight of the year candidate. Hurd now 21-0, (15) retained his IBF strap, via a 10th round stoppage of the 32-year-old former champion from Las Cruces, New Mexico.
“I’m always a slow starter,” Hurd said, a native of Accokeek, Maryland. “Trout was good in the beginning, but I showed that it’s tough trying to go the distance with Jarrett Hurd.”
Trout, a southpaw, that was significantly smaller than his counterpart, gave Hurd all that he could handle and then some. Trout, a crafty veteran that has been in the ring with the likes of Miguel Cotto, Canelo Alvarez, and Lara, utilized different angles, boxing his way through the early rounds to establish a lead on the scorecards. Trout landed his jab and his hooks regularly. However, Trout was unable to maintain the pace, eventually running out of gas as the fight progressed into the later rounds.
Trout’s issues with stamina may have been attributed to his age combined with his recent inactivity. This was Trout’s first fight within the span of a year-and-a-half.
Both fighters sustained substantial damage throughout the contest. Hurd was cut over his left eye in the seventh round. By the ninth round Trout’s eye began to swell up badly.
In the tenth and final round, Hurd applied a lot of pressure on Trout, who had been back pedaling two rounds prior. Hurd hurt Trout with a lot of hard shots throughout the course of the stanza. At the conclusion of the frame, Trout’s head trainer, Louis Burke requested that the fight be stopped. Burke’s decision was an appropriate one, as well as humane considering the danger that Trout was in.
“He [Trout] was taking too much punishment,” Burke said of his pupil. “He fought a good fight, but then he started going away from the game plan.”
In his first title defense, Hurd’s determination mitigated Trout’s experience and agility. Hurd requires all of our attention now. If you didn’t take him seriously before, then you should now.
“It’s most definitely tougher to defend the title than win it,” Hurd said. “I’m always the one that comes on stronger at the end of the fight. We knew we were going to wear Austin Trout down in the later rounds and eventually stop him. My cut made me a little better with my head movement."
The 27-year-old Hurd is the first fighter to stop Trout.
“Team Swift, we don’t run from anyone,” he said. “I’m ready to unify. 2018 is the year for unifications. It doesn’t matter who it is. I am ready to fight anyone.”
Lara, Charlo, and Hurd are all figured to be matched against each other sometime next year.
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