Julian Williams sprung a shocking upset of the previously unbeaten Jarrett Hurd to capture the WBA and IBF junior middleweight titles on Saturday night at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Virginia.

Williams, who went off as a 5-1 underdog in Hurd’s backyard, dropped Hurd in the second round on his way to a unanimous decision by scores of 116-111 and 115-112 (twice) in a wildly entertaining scrap.

It completed a remarkable comeback for the 29-year-old from West Philadelphia, who has won five in a row since suffering a fifth-round knockout loss to Jermall Charlo in his only other world title shot in December 2016.

Afterward a teary-eyed Williams, who was homeless at 13 and watched his mother battle drug addiction, was so overcome by emotion that he had trouble conducting the in-ring interview.

“Jarrett’s such a great fighter and he pushed me,” Williams said. “Everybody was doubting me. They told me I was done, that I had no chin. I turned my Twitter off, I turned my Instagram off. I blocked out all the good stuff, I blocked out all the bad stuff. The boxing world, they make it seem like fighters take a loss and they can’t come back, and I just knew that wasn’t the case. Stop condemning fighters after they take a loss.”

Williams (27-1-1, 17 KOs) said he would be open to doing the contractually mandated rematch in Philadelphia after going on the road to meet Hurd in his home state.

Hurd (23-1, 16 KOs), who was coming off a fourth-round knockout of Jason Welborn on the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder undercard in December, was classy in defeat.

“J-Rock was the better man tonight,” Hurd said. “He put me down for the first time in my career and he came out with a victory. No nerves had anything to do with it.”

Article courtesy of The Guardian Sport