Terence Crawford dished out a masterful performance, halting Errol Spence Jr. in nine rounds to become the undisputed welterweight champion of the world on Sunday, Manila time.
Crawford decked the erstwhile unbeaten Spence three times in their 12-round, 147-pound title unification fight that was promoted as a Showtime Pay-Per-View main event at T-Mobile Arena.
In the ninth, Crawford pummeled a battered Spence with heavy punches that rendered the latter defenseless, prompting referee Harvey Dock to step in and stop the fight at 2:32 of the round.
It was the first time anyone knocked down Spence, who was undefeated in his first 28 professional fights. Spence fell to a 28-1, 22 KO record.
Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) now holds all the WBO, IBF, WBA, and WBC welterweight belts.
“It means everything because of who I took the belts from,” Crawford said after the match.
“They tried to blackball me. They kept me out. They talked bad about me. They said I wasn’t good enough and I couldn’t beat these welterweights. I just kept my head to the sky and kept praying to God that I would get the opportunity to show the world how great Terence Crawford is. Tonight, I believe I showed how great I am.”
Spence, the former IBF, WBC, and WBA champion, is inclined to exercise the rematch clause.
“We gotta do it again,” Spence said.
“I’m gonna be a lot better. It’ll be a lot closer. It’ll probably be in December, [at] the end of the year. I say we gotta do it again.
Spence admitted that Crawford was the better fighter that night.
“He was using the jab. My timing was a little bit off. He was just the better man tonight,” he said.
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