Crawford is King of the super lightweights

Crawford is King of the super lightweights. Photo: Sumio Yamada.

By Samuel Rosenberg

wbaboxing.com

At the Pinnacle Bank Area in Lincoln, Nebraska,  Terence Crawford  (32-0, 23KO’s), made history in his home state via picking up the WBA belt to unify the titles in the super lightweight division; making him the undisputed King of 140 pounds.

The Pinnacle Bank Arena was deafeningly loud for Crawfords introduction and arguably even louder when he scored a third round knockout of Julius Indongo (22-1, 12KO’s) with a wicked left hook to the liver that sent the Namibian down to the canvas writhing in agony.

It isn’t often you get such a clean body shot knockout in boxing.  Thinking back on some memorable ones such as Roy Jones Jr’s against Virgil Hill (1998) or Oscar De La Hoya’s vs Bernard Hopkins (2004) , Crawford’s body shot knockout last night is definitely one for the ages that will not be forgotten.

Post fight Crawford told reporters that he felt great and that he did not know where the rumors about him not easily making the weight came from.  He said he felt as though he “hadn’t even fought”, which is understandable considering he barely broke a sweat.  

Crawford said that his plan from the start of the fight was to catch Indongo on his wide swings and said that he “knew the body was going to be open being the way he throws punches” and that he had been working in the gym on repetition after repetition of catching him in the middle, which is exactly what we saw.

Crawford added that he is on his way north in weight to welterweight.  He said he has dreamed of making boxing history, ending the post fight interviews by saying “When you start boxing when you’re seven years old, that’s your dream to become world champion and after that you want to become something bigger than world champion – you just don’t stop there – you go to the highest level possible.”