Crawford stops Spence in ninth round
Terrence Crawford crushed Errol Spence en route to a ninth-round TKO to claim the undisputed world welterweight title in Las Vegas on Saturday. Unbeaten Crawford had knocked down Spence three times and his previously undefeated opponent was reeling under a barrage of punches when referee Harvey Duke called a stoppage at 2:32 of the ninth. Crawford added Spence’s WBA, WBA and IBF titles to his WBO title.
Crawford became the first undisputed world welterweight champion in the four-belt boxing era, which began in 2004. He was the former undisputed world welterweight and lightweight champion, and became the first man to win all the belts in two weight divisions. “It means everything because of who you took your seat belts from,” Crawford said.
“They tried to criticize me, and kept me out, kept me out. They talked badly about me, said I wasn’t good enough, that I couldn’t beat those heavyweights, and kept my head in the sky and kept praying to God that they would have the chance to show the world who he was.” Terrence Crawford”. “Tonight, I think I showed just how good I am,” added Crawford, whose performance improved to 40-0 with 31 knockouts, taking his knockout streak to 11 matches. This includes his eight fights at welterweight.
It was a surprisingly dominant performance in what was expected to be a close fight, one that has drawn comparisons to classic welterweight bouts like Roberto Duran vs. Sugar Ray Leonard and other huge fights like Floyd Mayweather’s 2015 win over Manny Pacquiao. .
Music star Eminem personally accompanied Crawford’s walk to the ring. The sellout crowd at the T-Mobile Arena included boxing royalty, led by heavyweight greats Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield as well as Mayweather and Pacquiao.
Spence ran in the first round, but Crawford, who was fighting a southpaw, began to loosen his hands in the second, punishing Spence with a plunger punch that dropped him late in the round. “This was more of a sudden drop,” Crawford said. “I caught him with my left and he didn’t think I’d come back with my right.”
Spence was still leading in the third round, but the power and accuracy of Crawford’s counterblows were devastating. Crawford hit a series of hard shots in the fourth, including a left that shook Spence. It was even more so in the sixth, and in the seventh, Crawford dropped Spence again with a right uppercut followed by a hook to the rearm. He dropped him again with a punch to the chin in the closing seconds of the round.
