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Crawford Drops Spence Three Times,
Stops Him In Ninth To Unify Welter Titles
By William Trillo
Photos: German Villasenor
The boxing world was clamoring for a battle between
Welterweight Champions Errol Spence Jr (28-1, 22 KO’s)
and Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KO’s) to determine who is
the best 147-pound fighter in the world. Most observers
saw this as a 50-50 fight. No one was expecting the
one-sided beatdown we saw in Las Vegas. But that is
exactly what happened and now Terence “Bud” Crawford
owns the IBF, WBA, WBC, and WBO World Welterweight title
belts.
To put it bluntly, this fight wasn’t even close. Spence
may have won the first three minutes which was your
basic feeling out process round. But once he hit the
deck in round two thanks to a Crawford left-right
combination it was pretty evident Spence didn’t want any
more of that smoke. His game plan changed dramatically
and from that point on it was the Terence Crawford show.
Working behind a Jackhammer jab, Crawford nullified the
much-ballyhooed Spence jab, making it all but useless.
The fact is, everything Crawford was doing was making
Spence look pedestrian at best, and the third round
wasn’t even over.
By round four Crawford was just beating Spence up, for
lack of a better term. Crawford had busted up Spence
pretty good by now with that jab. Bleeding from the nose
and with an eye that was swelling it was clear Spence
was in big trouble.
Rounds five and six saw Crawford landing with pinpoint
accuracy. Whether it be to the body or head, Spence was
getting beaten like a drum. Outside of a few wild and
winging arm punches he had nothing to stop Crawford.
A right uppercut put Spence down again early in round
seven. After getting to his feet Spence took another
hammering until he was dropped late again in the round.
Being down three times now, this was more than an uphill
battle for Spence to climb. Things were looking very
bleak in his corner in between rounds.
Spence was out of answers and Crawford knew it. Known as
a great finisher, Crawford waited patiently before he
moved in for the KO. Spence made it through round eight,
but it would not be long before this fight was over.
Coming out strong in round nine, Crawford jumped on
Spence and did not relent. After almost two solid
minutes of getting hit from pillar to post the referee
had no choice but to jump in save Spence from further
damage at the 2:32 mark
Crawford had a lot to prove tonight, and he knew it. He
was bound and determined to prove all the Naysayers
wrong, and there were plenty of them. Crawford took this
fight out of the judges’ hands and did what was
necessary to come out victorious. It was an impressive
victory, and no one can ever take that away from him.
“It means everything because of who I took the belts
from,” said Crawford. “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.”
“He was just better tonight,” said Spence. “He was using
the jab. My timing was a little bit off. He was just the
better man tonight.
“Like I said before, I only dreamed of being a world
champion,” said Crawford. “I’m an overachiever. Nobody
believed in me when I was coming up, but I made
everybody a believer. I want to thank Spence and his
team because without him none of this would have been
possible.”
Lightweight Giovanni Cabrera (21-1, 7 KO’s) is blessed
with a granite chin but cursed with pillows for fists.
That’s a bad combination when going up against a guy
like Isaac Cruz (25-2-1, 17 KO’s). Fighting for the
vacant WBC Silver Light WBO Latino Lightweight belt Cruz
and Cabrera went the distance in a fight that seemed
easy to score.
Cruz was dominant and coming forward while Cabrera
fought most of the fight in reverse. Had it not been for
an impressive set of whiskers, Cabrera would have spent
the night on the canvas. But, Cruz could not take him
out so it went to a very questionable split decision.
One judge scored the fight 114-113 for Cabrera which
seemed a tad absurd. Thankfully the other two judges saw
it 114-113 and 115-112 in favor of Cruz.
“I was superior tonight, but I do respect all of my
opponents, and he was very good today,” said Cruz. “I
was frustrated a little. He thought it was my birthday
because he was hugging me all night.”
With the WBC World Bantamweight title up for grabs
Nonito Donaire (42-8, 28 KO’s) and Alexandro Santiago
(28-3-5, 14 KO’s) waged war in a battle that left both
men bloodied and swollen in this rugged twelve round
scrap.
Santiago was rocked by a big left hook in round two and
it looked like maybe Nonito was going to be too big and
strong for the fighter from Tijuana. But Santiago put on
a gutty performance, no amount of blood dripping into
his eyes was going to deter him from his goal.
By the middle rounds Santiago was taking over the show.
Try as he might the 40 year old Donaire just could not
pull the trigger and was unable to turn the tide. After
twelve hard fought rounds Santiago was awarded the
unanimous decision with scores all in his favor reading,
115-113 and 116-112 twice.
“It is so hard to explain this moment right now,” said
Santiago, who became the 90th fighter to compete on
SHOBOX: The New Generation and later become champion.
“All the work we put in for just this moment. It’s
amazing just to win this title.”
“I’m disappointed,” said Donaire. “This is a blessing to
do this for a very long time. I feel good still.
Congratulations to Alexandro. He deserves it. He is a
tough guy.”
Super Bantamweight Jose Salas Reyes (13-0, 10 KO’s)
stopped Aston Palicte (28-6-1, 23 KO’s) at the 1:30 mark
of round 4.
Super Middleweight Steven Nelson (19-0, 15 KO’s)
defeated Rowdy Legend Montgomery (10-5-1, 7 KO’s) via
unanimous decision over 10.
Super Welterweight Yoenis Tellez (6-0, 5 KO’s) overcame
some rough housing from Sergio Garcia (34-2, 14 KO’s) on
his way to a third round KO.
Lightweight Demler Zamora (12-0, 9 KO’s) took a ten
round unanimous decision over Nikolai Buzolin (9-5-1, 9
KO’s).
Welterweight Kevin Ceja Ventura (11-1, 8 KO’s) was upset
by Deshawn Prather (16-1, 2 KO’s) who took a razor close
unanimous decision.
Lightweight Jabin Chollet (8-0, 7 KO’s) made quick work
of Michael Portales (3-2-1, 1 KO) stopping him in round
two at the 1:58 mark.
Super Featherweight Justin Viloria (3-0, 3 KO’s) opened
the show by stopping Pedro Penunuri Borgaro (5-1, 3
KO’s) just 41 seconds into the fourth round.
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