Crawford stops Porter to retain WBO welterweight belt

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Terence Crawford’s streak of stellar wins continues after stopping former world champion Shawn Porter in the 10^th round via technical knockout to retain his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight championship belt.

Just as what the fans and analysts expected, Porter would dictate the pace and continued to put pressure on Crawford every time he gets into his offense.

Porter’s aggression proved to be effective early on as he was able to hit Crawford with clean right jabs while also moving forward from the first to the third round.

However, Crawford finally countered by tagging Porter with left body shots that were available for most of the fight.

Crawford’s accuracy on his left body shots was again in full display as the rounds progressed, slowing down the surging Porter in the middle rounds.

After Crawford got his angles that made his left body shots connect at will, the WBO world champion also unlocked his right straight that unloaded more combinations against Porter’s upper body.

Both fighters would engage in heated exchanges from rounds eight to nine but the calm and collected Crawford had other plans once the bell rang at the start of the tenth.

As Porter made his approach once again, Crawford perfectly timed a left uppercut that met the challenger’s jaw for the first knockdown of the fight.

Porter was able to get back to his feet but the quick Crawford combination that ended with a vicious right overhand recorded the second knockdown of the fight that urged the Porter camp to throw in the white towel.

As of now, current IBF and WBC unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. is yet to respond to Crawford’s challenge.