Terence Crawford is now a four-division champion, but this one wasn’t easy. Crawford earned a unanimous decision victory over Israil Madrimov in a close, hard-fought bout to capture the WBA super welterweight.
The judges scored it 116-112, 115-113×2, all in favor of Crawford, who has now held titles at 135, 140, 147, and 154 pounds.
Here is a look at the official scorecards:
Crawford’s jab, activity, and a strong push in the championship rounds seemed to secure the fight and a title in a new weight class.
Madrimov was a complex puzzle to solve. Madrimov’s movement, sneaky speed, and power were key factors that kept Crawford cautious throughout the fight. His straight right hand found a home during the early and middle rounds, further adding to the challenge. Crawford did enough to nullify Madrimov’s momentum with powerful shots to the body and some well-placed uppercuts.
Both men had a little mouse under their left eye from the other’s punches, but there was no other significant facial damage. Madrimov’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, echoed his post-fight sentiments on social media shortly after the bout.
Hearn believes Madrimov was disrespected on the scorecards and deserved more love as the defending champion.
Longtime boxing journalist Dan Rafael gave a quick take on the result, pointing the finger at Madrimov’s lack of activity and throwing some cold water on Crawford’s desire to step up to fight Canelo Alvarez at 168 pounds.
I disagree with Rafael on Madrimov’s inactivity. I agree Crawford outworked him down the stretch, but I don’t think it was Madrimov’s choice.
It appeared Madrimov got a little tired down the stretch and ate some hard shots in the 11th and 12th rounds. Madrimov’s constant motion is part of what makes him tough to time, but it’s also a taxing way to fight, and that might have contributed to his decreased work rate during the championship rounds.
I do agree with Rafael’s take on a potential Crawford-Canelo matchup. You could see Madrimov’s punches and overall strength had a little more impact on Crawford, and this was only one weight class up from welterweight.
It’s tough to imagine Crawford absorbing some of the shots he took from Madrimov if they were coming from Canelo. Crawford could be rematching Errol Spence in his next fight by taking on another challenge at 154 pounds, but it is easy to see how his fans might be a bit nervous if he attempted to challenge Canelo.
Saturday night’s scrap was an excellent tactical fight between two elite boxers, and Crawford won.
The overall show was strong as Turki Alalshikh and Riyadh Season produced an outstanding first event in the United States, and there are likely more to come in the States. We saw two major upsets with Martin Bakole stopping Jared Anderson and Jose Valenzuela dethroning Isaac Cruz.
Overall, it was an excellent night of boxing across multiple weight classes.
