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Free agent Jesse Hart is ready for a big fight and hopes the likes of Caleb Plant or Edgar Berlanga are prepared to pick up the phone.
Philadelphia’s Hart improved to 31-3 (25 KOs) with a fifth-round stoppage of Daniel Adku (15-5-1, 11 KOs) at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia on Saturday, and now wants to get back in the title mix.
Hart, the son of legendary Philly middleweight Eugene “Cyclone” Hart, is poised and ready for another opportunity after suffering two losses, in 2017 and 2018, to Gilberto Ramirez for the WBO 168-pound belt. Ramirez now holds a title at 200 pounds.
“I hope my fight on Saturday is going to lead to bigger and better things, as far as the fighters wanting to fight me,” said Hart. “I think I’m the most avoided right now because a lot of people don’t wanna take the gamble with me. A lot of people don’t want to take their chances of losing, so of course I’m not getting the fights that I want – the fights that I believe I should be getting. But I think after Saturday, all is going to change.”
Hart, 34, spoke pre-fight about trying to raise awareness about knife crime in his home city, and he is driven to succeed in winning a world title, something that has eluded him and his father, despite “Cyclone” having faced a who’s who of top fighters of the day in the 1970s, including Bennie Briscoe, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Marvin Hagler, Vito Antufermo, Boogaloo Watts and Sugar Ray Seales.
Hart desperately wants to bring a belt back to the family home.
“It motivates me a lot because that’s still on the line, that’s still on my brain. I think about that every time I go training,” Hart explained. “Every time I’m getting ready for a fight, that’s the main goal – to win a world title for my family and to be the best fighter in the world, and there’s nothing more important than that to me, as far as my family’s legacy.”
Hart, of course, is well aware of Philadelphia’s proud boxing heritage, which extends far beyond his family name.
Asked about his favorite Philly fighters, Hart is unsure where to start.
“Everybody,” he said with a smile. “A whole collection of them, because that’s who my dad made me watch as a kid, all Philly fighters; George Benton, Matthew Saad Muhammad, Willie ‘The Worm’ Monroe, [Bennie] Briscoe, he made me watch. He used to make me watch this guy named ‘Gypsy’ Joe Harris – there’s not a lot of film on him, but my dad found somebody who had a small film on ‘Gypsy’ Joe Harris, and I used to watch him. My dad was telling me stories about him that he had ‘one eye’ and things like that. Him and George Benton, I believe, are my favorite Philly fighters – and my father, of course.”
Jesse’s dad won 30, lost nine and drew once as a professional, stopping 28 of his victims. The son always wanted to take the same path as his father, and he hoped to earn the same affection his dad had from the fans.
“I wanted to follow in his footsteps as far as that aspect. I wanted to be fan-friendly, power … you can’t build power,” Hart continued. “A lot of people say you can build it, you can do this and you can do that, but you can’t build power. You have to be born with that.
“Timothy Bradley showed that you can have every muscle you could have in the world, and still can’t punch your way out of a wet paper bag. You have to be born with that – that’s something that’s inherited, I don’t know how my dad did, but that power is something that’s inherited.
“I wanted to be fan-friendly in that aspect because a guy can be champion of the world for decades, and nobody really cares, and he doesn’t make any money. Like Mike Tyson said, a guy that can knock out who’s exciting, he can make $100 million in two short years and be world champion because he’s exciting. Everybody wants to see him, and he’s got the power to get the guy out of there with one shot. That’s what I want to do.”
While Hart is keen for a title opportunity at light heavyweight, he is open to facing any number of big names and believes his free-agent status should help him achieve that as he looks to round out his stellar career with high-profile, lucrative fights
“Absolutely, I want to be in a big fight soon,” he said. “I can work with everybody. I don’t have to be signed to a promotional company, I can fight guys of Eddie Hearn’s [Matchroom] – he’s got Edgar Berlanga, PBC have got Caleb Plant, David Benavidez. We can all swap punches.
“I can swap punches with anybody, and that’s the way we want it. We don’t want to just be staying in our own lane. Nah, I wanna be able to swap punches with everybody.”