UNBEATEN Terence Crawford made a successful defence of his WBO welterweight title on Saturday, stopping Shawn Porter by knocking the challenger down twice in the 10th round in Las Vegas.
Porter’s father and trainer, Ken, surprised the crowd at the Mandalay Bay casino by stopping the fight after the second knockdown to hand the 34-year-old Crawford his ninth-straight victory inside the distance.
“I was just the better man today,” said Crawford, who improved to 38-0, with 29 wins by knockouts. “I figured him out in round one. I figured I had the reach and that he had to take chances to get in. “He was trying to maul and push me back but I used my angles to push him back as well.”
Crawford initially felled Porter with a left uppercut on the button that buckled his knees early in the 10th.
It was all over at 1:21 of the round, when Crawford’s overhand right to the side of the head sent Porter to the canvas for a second time, prompting his father to climb the steps and ask referee Celestino Ruiz to halt the contest.
Porter got up from the second knockdown and appeared to be ready to continue, but his father felt he had enough, saying later his son was fighting “blindfolded.”— AFP
