This is essentially the main event of the sanctioned professional boxing portion of Sunday night's Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul card on Showtime PPV. That honor had originally gone to Jean Pascal vs. Badou Jack II, but with Pascal testing positive for multiple performance-enhancing drugs Jack was relegated to a 10-rounder versus undefeated but untested Venezuelan banger Dervin Colina with a demotion further down the marquee. Neither man has fought since before the start of the global pandemic. Hurd's layoff is approaching seventeen months since he outpointed Chia Santana in his rebound effort after losing to Julian Williams in spring of 2019. Arias has been out for nearly two full years since being upset by Luke Keeler in Belfast, dropped twice by the relatively feather-fisted "Cool Hand". Although many have long considered him a natural MW boiling for most of his career to 154lb, this will be Hurd's first time competing at middleweight versus a serious and (formerly) world-rated opponent. Arias has campaigned exclusively at 160 and 168lbs. Hurd is still in most of the major org rankings at light middle (WBC #7, IBF #4 and WBA #3) but seems to be done with that division, given the very fact of this match-up. Arias is absent from all; he likely would be anyway due to his length of layoff but also is winless in his last three bouts (0-2-1, prior to which he was unblemished).
ARIAS DOESNT PACK ENOUGH POWER TO REALLY HURT ANY CHAMPIONS OR FORMER CHAMPIONS. HE IS TOO SMALL AT MIDDLEWEIGHT AND SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT. WE SAW THAT IN HIS LAST FEW FIGHTS.ARIAS REALLY SHOULD BE FIGHTING AT 154. HURD IS A BIG DUDE. HE WILL BE BIG AT 160 AND 168. HES BEEN ABLE TO MAKE 154 BC HE WAS STILL YOUNG. I BELIEVE HAVE TO LOSE LESS WEIGHT WILL HELP HIS PUNCH RESISTANT AND HE WILL HAVE MORE POWER. HOPEFULLY WE GET A HURD AND LARA REMATCH OR EVEN A BIG CHARLO VS HURD AFTER.
Yeah, they probably should have swapped their weight classes this whole time. But that would take away Hurd's major advantage, bullying opponents with his size at super welter. He also got away with mediocre defense and relying on his chin standing up to most shots from the majority guys under that limit, but as we saw versus J-Rock that his chin wasn't imperfect even down there... It definitely might help Arias get more respect with his punches, though, because middles and super middles don't really seem to.
Hurd looked like he had nothing against jrock... he should just go ahead and make the move up to 168.
Well, hold your horses, let's see how the power even carries up to middle. If he doesn't stop Arias, then 168 might be a bridge too far. With his defense being shoddy, like I said, he might just find himself on the wrong side of a lot of shootouts up at super middle against superior chins & firepower.
I'd love to see The Lion Headed One take another L, but Luis Arias is woefully awful. He gets mangled. I mean, Hurd is facing Luke Keeler's leftovers, who he's already beaten senseless. A weight drained Arias is going to even more glassy, he might not make it out of the opening round.
Yeah, just gave myself a refresher on the Keeler vs. Arias fight reading through our RBR posts, was foggy on how it went but that brought it back.. https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...enkins-vs-patrick-gallagher-rbr.634076/page-3 Cool Hand Luke whooped his ass, which means Swift almost certainly will.
