When Jarrett Hurd went into his junior middleweight world title unification fight with Erislandy Lara in the spring, he did so with a damaged left shoulder but still managed to win the action-packed fight of the year candidate.
On Monday, Hurd announced that he had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff that he initially injured during the training camp for the fight.
“Preparing for the Lara fight I had a slightly torn rotator cuff in my left shoulder,” Hurd said. “I was receiving cortisone shots to numb the pain but that was only temporary. Now the issue is taken care of. Thank you to everyone that wished me luck on my procedure (Monday). Be back soon.”
It is unclear how long Hurd (22-0, 15 KOs), 27, of Accokeek, Maryland, will be out of action.
“Obviously, the injury became intolerable and (the surgery) had to be done,” trainer Ernesto Rodriguez said. “He expects to have physical therapy. As of now, no actual date (for his return is known) since (surgery) was just performed (on Monday).”
In his second title defense, Hurd squared off with fellow 154-pound titlist Erislandy Lara on April 7 at the Hard Rock Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, and they put on a tremendous fight from start to finish. After blistering action from the opening bell, Hurd knocked Lara down with a clean left hook in the waning seconds of the 12th round, which turned out to be the margin of victory in his split-decision win: 114-113, 114-113 for Hurd on two scorecards and 114-113 for Lara on the third.
Hurd won a vacant world title in February 2017 by knocking out Tony Harrison in the ninth round and then made his first defense in October when he became the first man to stop former world titlist Austin Trout, forcing him to retire on his stool after the 10th.
After the victory over Lara, Hurd said he hoped to lure British star and former welterweight titlist Kell Brook (37-2, 26 KOs), now boxing in the junior middleweight division, into the ring. But there has also been fan interest in a unification fight between Hurd and Houston’s Jermell Charlo (31-0, 15 KOs), who retained his title by majority decision against Trout on June 9.
Hurd-Charlo is a fight Showtime, which has been televising their fights, hopes to make this fall, though Hurd’s surgery seemingly would push that back.