Crawford halts Indongo in three to unify 140 pound world titles
Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) won all four major world titles at light welterweight when he defeated previously unbeaten Julius Indongo (22-1, 11 KOs) by third round knockout on Saturday night at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
Crawford, 29, added the WBA and IBF belts to his WBC and WBO titles.
The two defending champions traded solid punches in an exciting opening round before Crawford landed a left hand, followed by a hard right that dropped the Namibian in the second.
Indongo, 34, quickly got up and fought back for the remainder of the round, but he was being overpowered by the American.
The end came in the third when Crawford landed a hurtful left hook to the body, flooring Indongo, who was unable to beat referee Jack Reiss’ count at 1:38 of the round.
"We knew the body would be open, being that he swings so wild," said Crawford. "That’s what we worked on in the gym."
Crawford becomes the first undisputed world champion since Jermain Taylor in 2005. Taylor won all four major middleweight world titles when he outpointed Bernard Hopkins, who had previously become undisputed champion with a KO victory over Oscar De La Hoya earlier in 2005.
"It means everything," said Crawford. "When you start boxing when you're 7 years old, that's your dream, to become world champion, and after that you want to become something bigger than world champion.
"I’m the only one who can say I’m the undisputed champion of the world. That’s big because there’s nobody else who can say they’re undisputed in their weight division."
Crawford is now likely to move up to welterweight and fight the winner of the rematch between WBO champion Jeff Horn and former titleholder Manny Pacquiao.