Contribution by Ron Harris, PG Sentinel

Brooklyn – Coming off a devastating loss, his first, last May, “Swift” Jarrett Hurd, from Accokeek, made some drastic changes in his life and his boxing team.  Personally, he moved out of his parents’ home at 29.  He changed boxing trainers after mutually parting ways with long time trainer Ernesto Rodriquez.  And, finally, took his training camp to Colorado Springs after training in the Hillcrest gym near Iverson Mall in Prince George’s county for most of his pro career.

He had not fought in 8 months, his longest lay off as a pro.  His new training gym took him to Alexandria, Virginia under the training of veteran Kay Koroma.  Koroma is known as an excellent amateur trainer that has worked with several Olympic fighters, men and women.  Koroma is a soft-spoken man but put his foot down when first approached to train Hurd.  Hurd had a contractual agreement for a rematch with Julian Williams who was in possession of the 3 championship belts once held by Hurd.  Hurd was anxious to retain those belts.  Williams has since lost the belts in his last fight.  Koroma stood firm and told Hurd, “If you are intent on fighting Williams, you need too get another trainer.”  Koroma agreed to train Hurd once he agreed to take a fight before trying to get the belts back.  “He needed to get to know me and I needed to get to know him,” says Koroma.

Last Saturday night, Hurd entered the ring at Barclays in Brooklyn as the co-feature to the Danny Garcia vs Ivan Redkach fight. The fight was shown on Showtime.   His opponent was Fransico Santana, who was moving up from welterweight to challenge Hurd at 154 lbs.  Hurd towered over the smaller and shorter Santana (25-8-1) and won a unanimous decision to improve his record to 24-1.  The judges scored the fight 97-92 and 99-90 twice.  Hurd said the only loss was hard at the time but, “We’ve moved from the Julian Williams fight.  We had a long lay off and we got the job done.”

In this fight, Hurd was on the attack early and often with a stiff jab that was effective, but never kept Santana from moving forward.  Hurd also had a sharp upper cut all night and the final one put Santana on his knees with 2 seconds left in the fight.  Hurd showed good head, shoulder and foot movement when he needed to.  “We want the belts, for sure. We want the best.   I am not exactly sure what our next move is,” said Swift.

Washington, DC native, Patrick Harris won in a unanimous decision, as did Keeshawn Williams from District Heights.  Baltimore’s Lorenzo Simpson stayed undefeated with a unanimous decision.