I'm big fan of boxing no where close to being an expert. I consider myself a casual so I stay in my lane. So I'm posing this question to all the real boxing heads on this forum. I thought Swift was in the upper tier of his division so what was it?
Was he not all the way there because his father passed?
Was he outta shape?
Did his reckless style catch up to him last night?
Or was Arias just the better fighter?
Chime in brehs
His mental state because of his father passing might play a role but he also looked bad his last time out.
The biggest thing for Hurd is he seems to be struggling to find a boxing identity.
Hurd is known for being a big weight cutter/weight bully. He somehow makes weight well under the 154 limit. Then he rehydrates something crazy. His style has simply been to walk down and walk through his opponents until they get worn out from that and his power. Gift and a curse. Man has a hell of a resume at that weight but he was taking a lot of punishment. After the loss to J rock he took Kay Koroma as his trainer who tried to get him to box more.
His fight with Santana showed this and he didn't really look good or effective. Santana also was pretty shot so the fact this fight went the distance was not a good look.
This fight with Arias was a little different since it took place at 160 not 154 and Arias is a pretty durable fighter at 160. This exposes the reason why Hurd doesn't go up in weight. He loses his advantages. He also reportedly dropped 50 pounds to make the weight which is insane. but anyways he went back to his old style and Arias himself got a new trainer for this fight and got up for it. Arias was the better fighter that night. Arias doesnt have a lot of pop because he had the workrate to repeatedly blast Hurd with overhands over his shytty shoulder roll for 4-5 straight rounds. Hurd was pretty slow and when he did try to come on later, he also gassed like Arias gassed and he had no plan B. Arias was also rocking him a couple times late in the fight.
thats basically how it went down. After a loss like this, Hurd really has to sit down and re-evaluate himself as a fighter. He was not suppose to get into a slugfest with this guy and lose. It could also be the wars hes been in are also burning him out fast. He was calling out Jermell Charlo for a fight which could have been Charlo's next fight if he got all 4 belts. But that fight is done for the time being.
