Terence Crawford Settles His Feud With Jose Benavidez Jr

Terence Crawford Settles His Feud With Jose Benavidez Jr

The bad blood was there throughout the build-up leading up to the fight, but Terrence Crawford had the last word as he retained his WBO welterweight title in Omaha, when he stopped  Jose Benavidez Jr at 2:42 in the 12th and final round.

Benavidez Jr oozed confidence pre-fight and took that self-belief into the ring, and for 6 rounds it was a highly competitive fight. I had Crawford up only 4-2 at that point. But from round 7 fatigue set in and the self-belief disappeared from the brave challenger and Crawford steadily but effectively broke his man down.

But the end in the 12th came as a surprise, at no point did a stoppage look likely, but Crawford landed with a booming right uppercut and floored Benavidez Jr and a further barrage convinced Celestino Ruiz to end the contest with just 18 seconds remaining.

Crawford had problems getting into range in the first half of the contest and Benavidez Jr was posing some real problems for the unbeaten challenger. But Crawford took over from round 7 as the challenger slowed and became more static.

Benavidez Jr gave it a real go and proved he belongs at this level and will come again despite losing his unbeaten record at the hands of the champion.

As for Crawford, the ending was impressive but he didn’t really convince me that he has the beating of Errol Spence Jr, his real threat to complete dominance at his new weight. Pre-fight I felt Spence Jr would beat him, post-fight I am even more convinced.

Crawford improves to 34-0, Benavidez Jr drops to 27-1.