Julian Williams to Face Harrison/Charlo Winner
If one thing is for sure, unified super welterweight champion Julian “J-Rock Williams (27-1-1, 16 KO’s) is not looking for any soft touches. This past May, Williams forcefully hijacked the IBF, IBO and WBA straps from Jarrett “Swift” Hurd (23-1, 16 KO’s).
A TIME TO CONQUER AND A TIME TO DEFEND
After going at each other with more lethal intent than ‘The Simpson’s’ Itchy and Scratchy, the dust-up was immediately deemed a fight of the year candidate. Having lost his belts, Hurd wanted an immediate rematch. Without question the fans wanted to bear witness to another brutal barn-burner of that quality. Thankfully, J-Rock was more than willing to oblige.
Unfortunately, the rematch has yet to transpire despite all parties being interested. Actually, the boxing world still has no real clarity on this matter. All that is known is that for his own personal reasons, Hurd elected to not fight Williams at this time. Having allotted Swift a substantial window of opportunity to make a fight, Williams moved on.
On January 1, 2020, Julian Williams will make his first title defense against Jeison “Banana” Rosario (19-1-1, 13 KO’s). When Williams defends his belts, he will do so in the always-tricky hometown fight.
True, the crowd will be on his side. However there is always an alluring siren call urging boxers to fight for the crowd’s amusement at their own detriment. Only time will tell how J-Rock navigates his fight plan under the hot lights of Liacouras Center, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
J-ROCKS FIRST UNIFICATION??
Outside of maintaining hometown bragging rights and retaining his belts, there will be a lot riding on the January 1 scrap. While conducting a live interview on ThaBoxingVoice, Stephen Edwards, Julian Williams’s chief second, announced that Team Williams had already signed a contract to face the winner of Harrison v Charlo 2.
“And then I heard, ‘aw man Julian ducking Lara!’ Blah, blah, blah! But they don’t even know that we already signed to fight the winner of Harrison/Charlo…yeah, done deal!” ~Stephen Edwards, Julian Williams chief second
In June, Tony “Super Bad” Harrison (28-2, 21 KO’s) scored a mildly controversial unanimous decision victory over Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo (32-1, 16 KO’s). With the win, Harrison snatched the Iron Man’s WBC world super welterweight title. After rescheduling their initial rematch, due to an injury Harrison suffered in training camp, they are all set to fight on December 21.
Regardless of who prevails in Harrison v Charlo 2, their fight with Williams will stand as a significant unification bout. This would signal Jaime Munguia’s WBO strap as being the only loose belt preventing an undisputed champion at super welterweight.
RENEWED FAMILY FEUD
It would be interesting if Williams fought Jermell Charlo though. Back on December 10, 2016 J-Rock fought and lost to Jermall “Hit Man” Charlo (29-0, 21 KO’s). Therefore, there’s be a preexisting and very intriguing backstory of Williams fighting with both brothers built-in.
It would be a treat to see if Williams could get some payback with the ‘smaller’ brother. Or, would it be proven the Charlo’s just have J-Rock’s number? Trouble is, the only way to find out is for them to fight.
3kingboxing will continue to follow and report on these late breaking developments.
By: Bakari Simpson
