Jarrett Hurd, the unified super welterweight champion, will defend his title against Julian Williams this coming Saturday night.
The event takes place live on FOX from the EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Virginia under the Premier Boxing Champions banner.
“We always work on different things in camp, whether it’s preparing for southpaws in the past or orthodox in this fight. You have to do everything to your right as far as movements against an orthodox guy so we made the transition to that for the last couple of camps starting with the Jason Welborn fight,” Hurd said. “I want to be undisputed champion at 154-pounds. The plan is to go after the WBC belt next. I’m inspired to do it and I see it right in front of me.
“I feel strong and the shoulder is 100 percent. In sparring and hitting the bag, I forgot I even had surgery. That’s how good I feel.”
The broadcast begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT and will see Hurd return to defend his titles in front of a hometown crowd for the first time since becoming a world champion. A native of Accokeek, Maryland, this is Hurd’s first fight in the region since his 13th pro victory in 2014 that took place at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
“It’s hard to tell what type of fight this is going to be. I want to say that he’s going to try to box, but I said that about Erislandy Lara and we saw that he stood toe-to-toe with me. Because of my size, I don’t really think Julian Williams is going to try to do that. He’s going to try to get his shots off and score points and make it through 12 rounds,” Hurd said. “I always said that one day I wanted to be the guy who when I got to this position, would give back to the area here. I want to be the face of the DMV (D.C.-Maryland-Virginia). When you come here and talk about boxing, you’re talking about me. I’ve got the city behind me and I couldn’t be any happier about it.”