Retrospective · Fight: July 29, 2023 · Published:
The official result
Terence Crawford defeated Errol Spence Jr. by technical knockout in round nine on July 29, 2023. The referee stopped the fight at 2:32 of round nine. Crawford had dropped Spence three times and led 79-70 on all three cards, so the stoppage confirmed an extraordinary existing advantage rather than rescuing him from a close score.
The stakes
Years of failed negotiations ended with both unbeaten welterweight champions in the same ring. Spence held three belts; Crawford brought the WBO title and prior undisputed status at 140 pounds. Spence unified the WBA, WBC and IBF belts; Crawford defended the WBO title. Both were unbeaten and the agreement followed years of expectation, with no vacant belt or interim champion diluting the question of the best welterweight.
How the night turned
Crawford scored the first knockdown of Spence’s career in round two, added two more in the seventh and forced the ninth-round stoppage while leading 79-70 on every card. The second-round knockdown came from a short counter and was the first Spence had suffered as a professional. Two more in the seventh made the trend irreversible; Crawford changed stance, timing and distance while the unified champion lost effective replies.
What remains
The scale of the win exceeded the closeness many expected. Crawford did not merely collect the fourth belt: he became the first male four-belt undisputed champion in two weight classes. Becoming undisputed at 147 was already historic. Doing it after gathering all four titles at 140 made Crawford the first male four-belt undisputed champion in two divisions, delivered through a performance far clearer than the anticipation suggested.
Sources
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