LAS VEGAS — One of the narratives heading into Saturday's WBO welterweight title defense against Shawn Porter was how Terence Crawford would handle the most significant and toughest opponent of his stellar career. He'd been criticized for not facing the cream of the crop at 147 pounds. Would he deliver under the brightest of lights?
Those questions have been laid to rest for good as Crawford did what Errol Spence Jr., Danny Garcia, and Keith Thurman failed to do. Crawford dropped Porter twice in the tenth round, which led to Porter's head trainer and father, Kenny, to get on the apron and tell the referee his son could no longer continue at 1:21 of the tenth round. DAZN News had the fight scored 86-85 for Crawford at the time of the stoppage. It was the first time Porter's been stopped in his stellar career.
“Shawn Porter is a good fighter," Crawford said in his post-fight interview. "He was doing some little slick things in there, making me think. I knew I caught him with a good uppercut, and then when I caught him with another left hook, I saw on his face he was real hurt. His dad did the right thing by stopping it, because I was coming with a vengeance.”
It was a back-and-forth battle from the opening bell. Crawford and Porter each had their moments. Porter was his customary self by coming in, applying constant pressure and swinging away. It took Crawford a little time to get used to Porter's bulldog style.
Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) started quickly switching stances and throwing combinations. From the middle of the fight on, Crawford stayed in the southpaw stance.
In the sixth round, Crawford gained control of the fight. He began landing the crisper and harder shots to the body and upstairs which started taking their toll on Porter. You could see Porter starting to tire with each passing round.
Then the beginning of the end came right at the start of the tenth round, Porter missed a combo and Crawford slid quickly and blasted a laser straight left to the chin. Porter made it back up to signal he was ok.
Crawford smelled blood. He connected with left and then a chopping right from Crawford. The Nebraska native landed a right hand followed by a left and one more right sends Porter down for the second time. He slowly made it up to his feet. But Kenny told the referee that says his son is done. Porter was upset at his father's action as Crawford jumped up and down in excitement.
The logical fight to make is between Crawford-Spence. The unified welterweight champion was at the fight. He was shown by the crowd. They loudly booed him as he then proceeded to get up in disgust and left the arena.
“He was at my fight?," Crawford said. "That boy said he wasn’t gonna never be at my fights, and now he’s at my fights. You see what I did compared to what he did,” he said. “Who’s number one in the welterweight division now? I’ve been calling him out all day. Maybe I’ll go up to 154. Maybe if Spence gets his tail out of his butt, he’ll fight me.”
If there were any questions about Terence Crawford, they have been answered.
Here was DAZN News' live coverage of Terence Crawford vs. Shawn Porter.