Julian Williams: Jarrett Hurd wasn’t overrated, I was underrated

New WBA and IBF junior middleweight titleholder Julian Williams doesn’t want people to suddenly say Jarrett Hurd was overrated just because he beat him on Saturday.

Williams (27-1-1, 16 KO) spoke on the subject in an appearance on SiriusXM radio.

“I thought all the accolades and credit he got, I thought he deserved it. They didn’t overrate him but they underrated me,” Williams said. “They felt like I was a stepping stone or I was gonna come in and lay down, and I think it gave him a false sense of confidence. They were pumping him so much, promoting him so much — I think it kinda, like, made his head a little bit big and he started smelling his own underarms a little bit. It came back to bite him in the butt. You’ve got to stay hungry in this game.

“Trust me, there’s gonna be a big target on my back now. I gotta kinda, like, put those titles away and act like I’m still a challenger, because I never want to fall into what he fell into. I could tell that he felt this was gonna be a walk in the park. Fans, in his hometown, they’re getting haircuts in the locker room and the music is playing.”

Williams says that he deliberately was quiet leading up to the fight, as he suspected Hurd (23-1, 16 KO) wasn’t taking him as seriously as he should have.

“If you remember through the whole build-up, I was just quiet,” he said. “I didn’t wanna give him no motivation. ‘I’m gonna go out there and knock you out, Jarrett.’ I didn’t wanna do none of that, it would have motivated him, maybe it would have woke him up. I wanted to keep him sleeping on me, underestimating me. I think I did a good job with the mental warfare.”

Williams now has several potential options, at least in theory. Hurd says he has a rematch clause and that he’ll exercise that option, so the decision may already be made for him, with nothing he can do other than give up his belts, which he doesn’t want to do.

But Williams says he’d be happy to rematch Hurd, and then fight the WBC titleholder for further unification, and then in time take a rematch at 160 with Jermall Charlo, who defeated Williams back in 2016.

“It depends on money, it depends on the glory. That’s the first two things I worry about: the biggest fight for the most amount of money,” Williams said. “Who am I gonna get the most credit for?

“Of course I want to avenge my loss, but I also want all the titles as well. Jermall Charlo’s not going nowhere. If I beat his brother — I could do all three of those. I could rematch Jarrett Hurd, beat him, then unify with the winner of Jermell-Harrison, and then go up and fight Jermall Charlo in the rematch. How great would that story be?”