Boxing: Crawford destroys Spence Jr to become undisputed welterweight champion

This Sunday in Las Vegas, American Terence “Bud” Crawford made history. After giving Errol Spence Jr a boxing lesson, he became the first ever man to hold all the welterweight belts.

It was the clash at the summit. The fight to unify the belts and determine the undisputed king of welterweights. And in the 9th round, referee Harvey Dock was forced to call a halt to the fight, as Crawford pummeled Spence Jr, who could no longer defend himself properly. In fact, the Omaha native had been battering his compatriot since the second round. In the very last seconds of round 2, “Bud” sent Spence Jr crashing to the mat with a left jab followed by a devastating right jab. In round 7, Crawford took his opponent down for a second and third time. The first lightning strike was a counter right uppercut that landed right on the New Yorker’s ear. The second, a right to the chin at the very end of the round. As the fight went on, Spence Jr seemed to be getting slower and slower, less and less reactive, and always a step behind Crawford. This is not surprising, given the huge blows he’s been taking. The WBO champion puts the WBC, WBA and IBF champion through a real torture. The referee stopped the demonstration in the 9th round.

History

With this impressive success, Terence Crawford has achieved the feat of unifying and taking possession of the four major world belts (WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO). It’s the first time such a feat has been achieved in the history of the welterweight category since boxing’s four-main federation era began in 2004. But for his part, “Bud” is not at his first title unification. On August 19, 2017, he achieved this feat at super-lightweight. With this latest victory, the 35-year-old American further improves his dizzying career record. Terence Crawford, a professional since 2008, now has 40 victories (in as many fights), including 31 by KO, and no defeats. Errol Spence Jr now has 29 fights, 28 victories (22 by KO) and one defeat.