Terence Crawford has always been about fighting for his hometown fans in Nebraska and on August 19, Crawford delivered his finest performance in Lincoln, Nebraska.
In front of a raucous, pro-Crawford crowd, the Nebraska native became the first boxer in junior welterweight history to hold all four world titles (WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF) at the same time. He knocked out previously unbeaten WBA and IBF champion Julius Indongo in the third round in the main event of an ESPN-televised card.
Crawford had no problem asserting his dominance over Indongo, tagging Indongo with a lot of quick jabs and avoiding trouble with swift and sharp movement. The end was already near when Crawford knocked down Indongo in the second round.
But it was the third round that Crawford made his case as the best finisher in the sport when he landed a hard right body shot to Indongo. Indongo, with his back on the canvas, was not able to respond to the referee’s 10-count, clinching the win for the hometown fighter.
Crawford’s journey to the top of the 140-pound division started in 2015. After a highly successful run as a lightweight world champion, Crawford won the WBO junior welterweight title in his 140-pound debut. Crawford faced every challenger that stepped forward and came out the better fighter in every instance. Since moving up to junior welterweight, Crawford has shown exceptional power against the very best in the division. He has stopped every fighter, except for Viktor Postol last year, that Crawford has faced since 2015 (seven fights contested during that span).
Also on the televised portion of the card were rising stars Shakur Stevenson and Oleksandr Gvozdyk winning their respective fights in impressive fashion. Stevenson dominated David Paz, winning via unanimous decision (60-53, 60-53, 60-53) and Gvozdyk retained the NABO and NABF light heavyweight titles by stopping Craig Baker in the sixth round in the co-main event.
The win put Gvozdyk potentially one step closer to world title contention, possibly a fight against unified light heavyweight champion Andre Ward, who served as the third man on ESPN’s commentary for the card.
