LAS VEGAS — Terence “Bud” Crawford reached boxing immortality with a dominant victory by unanimous choice over the game’s largest star, Mexico’s Canelo Alvarez, on Saturday.
By profitable the undisputed tremendous middleweight world championship, Crawford is the primary undisputed three-division champion in boxing’s trendy historical past.
Crawford’s grasp class got here earlier than a sold-out, extremely partisan Mexican Independence Day weekend crowd of 70,482 followers, which was the most important crowd ever assembled for an occasion at Allegiant Stadium. The bout additionally was streamed reside on Netflix.
The judges’ scorecards learn 116-112, 115-113, 115-113.
After each fighters spent the primary spherical feeling one another out with minimal exercise, Crawford (now 42-0, 31 KOs) established a slender benefit within the second and third rounds. The fourth introduced the primary actual fireworks of the bout, as Crawford started by touchdown a flurry of punches and largely paced the spherical earlier than Alvarez ended with a monstrous proper that froze his opponent for a cut up second.
Regardless of shifting up two divisions from 154 to 168 kilos, Crawford maintained his traditional pace and movement, which introduced bother for the flat-footed Alvarez. Crawford’s counterpunching additionally proved deadly, because it usually has, stopping Alvarez, 35, from entering into a snug punching rhythm at any level.
The 37-year-old Crawford established full management, each in scoring and tempo, with a decisive sixth spherical and a robust begin to the seventh. It was round this level that Alvarez’s prospects started to really feel fairly bleak, given his clear pace drawback and behavior of fading within the later rounds.
The ninth spherical started with Crawford touchdown one other aggressive flurry on Alvarez, incomes a loud response from the pro-Alvarez crowd. An unintended headbutt from him mid-round conveniently slowed the tempo, however the uncharacteristic dangers he was taking have been nonetheless indicative of the place his nook thought the scorecards have been headed at that time.
Crawford, a local of Omaha, Neb., already was the one undisputed two-division champion within the four-belt period, however he moved up two weight lessons to satisfy Alvarez (63-3-2, 39 KOs) at his pure 168-pound restrict in an effort to make a actuality maybe probably the most anticipated struggle in a decade. Alvarez had closed as between a -140 to -180 favourite in Las Vegas sportsbooks, placing Crawford’s opening bell odds between +115 and +157.
UFC and TK president Dana White’s TKO Boxing poster baby Callum Walsh handily defeated Las Vegas native Fernando Vargas Jr. within the co-main occasion, incomes a convincing unanimous choice with a dominant wire-to-wire effort that ended with a decisive 99-91, 99-91, 100-90 scorecard.
The principle card additionally noticed energy puncher Christian Mbilli, a local of Cameroon, retain the WBC interim tremendous middleweight title by preventing Lester Martinez, a local of Guatemala, to a cut up attract a well-received brawl that the judges scored 97-93 for Martinez, 96-94 for Mbilli, and 95-95.
–Will Despart, Area Stage Media
