, you ROCK

5/11/2019- Fairfax, Va.- I was rooting for my Philly Boi, Julian ( J-Rock) Williams (26-1-1-16K) to beat the WBA / IBF Jr. Middleweight boss Jarrett (Swift) Hurd but wasn’t sure enough to bet on him. I just felt his best shot was in the first 5-6 rounds and after that, the bigger, stronger champion would roll over the talented Philly boxer-puncher. Man, I’ve never been so happy being wrong about something. I was watching this thrilling back and forth bout with my Jr. lightweight boxer, Davonte ( D-MAC) McCowen. This war got my boi super fired up and raring to get back in the gym to resume training.

This firefight started out cookin’ right from the start. The bigger undefeated champion Hurd was on the attack but Williams and his team led by  his underated trainer, Breadman  Edwards. I was in my hometown of Philly a couple of years ago and interviewed Williams and his trainer. This was about a week before he fought Jermall  Charlo a in his first title attempt and was brutally dropped and stopped in 5 rounds. Written off by many after his first loss, Williams and Edwards were determined to NOT let that loss define them. Boxing smart and sharp, the smooth punching Williams was much too quick and accurate for the plodding, easy to hit, Hurd. In an exchange along the ropes in the second round, Williams dropped Hurd  with a left hook to the temple. It was a perfect  shot, dropping Hurd for the first time in his career.

Not badly hurt, the champ was buzzed and finished the round which was nearly over, anyway. But the script was pretty much written at this point. The sharp shooting Williams constantly beat Hurd to the ‘git off’ and landed the cleaner, more telling shots, maybe even the HARDER shots. This war took place near Hurd’s hometown and Williams knew he had to eliminate the crowd from the equation as they rooted for everything their homie did. This wasn’t a rout though and the burly champ landed some serious shit on the man from Philly but never hurt him badly or overpowered him, which was what I expected. There were many serious exchanges throughout and the only  real lulls came when Hurd’s tape on his gloves came loose about three times, even when Williams was landing shots.

After seeing some weird calls recently in fights, I was hoping the roaring crowd wouldn’t influence the judges. After all, there was already ONE decision overturned on the night, plus the announcers were tring their BEST to make us think Hurd was winning the battle. This time though, the scorers got it right when the cards were read, 115-112 (twice) and 116-111 and THEN those three words, AND THE NEW. The dedicated Williams and Breadman were completely overcome with joy as tears flowed. It was a joy to see and Hurd was a PRO in defeat, saying “he was the better man, tonight) This, my friends was a display of CLASS, all around. all around. And my hometown, a boxing  Mecca, has a new, classy champion. What a breath of fresh air for this writer’s favorite sport.  J, YOU ROCK, baby.

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