Terence Crawford

This was only the second title fight ever held in Omaha, the first being in 1972, when heavyweight champion Joe Frazier defeated the Omaha/Council Bluffs product Ron Stander by fourth-round TKO.

Terence Allan Crawford (born September 28, 1987) is an American professional boxer.

He has held multiple world championships in three weight classes, from lightweight to welterweight, including the undisputed championship at light welterweight and welterweight.

As of January 2024, he holds the World Boxing Association (WBA) (Super version), World Boxing Council (WBC), and World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight titles.

Fighting for the first time as a professional in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, Crawford made his first title defense against 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist and former unified featherweight titleholder Yuriorkis Gamboa, who was a slight favourite going into the fight.

After winning three amateur tournaments shortly before the 2008 Olympics, he became the highest-ranked lightweight in the US.

However, his loss to leading contender Sadam Ali thwarted his Olympic ambitions.

Crawford made his professional debut on March 14, 2008, knocking out Brian Cummings in the first round.

He compiled a record of 19–0 with 15 wins by way of knockout (KO) against largely unheralded opposition.

Crawford's first notable bout was against Breidis Prescott on the undercard of the second fight between Brandon Ríos and Mike Alvarado.

Prescott was originally scheduled to face WBA light welterweight champion Khabib Allakhverdiev, who withdrew with an injured elbow.

Crawford was originally supposed to meet Robert Osiobe on the same card, but accepted the offer to fill in for Allakhverdiev on three-days notice.

Crawford defeated the Colombian by a unanimous decision.

Crawford received a purse of $125,000, whilst Prescott received $50,000.

This was the first time Crawford fought a ten-round fight and his first time fighting at the 140 lb. limit.

Crawford fought Alejandro Sanabria on June 15, 2013.

Held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, the fight served as an eliminator for the WBO lightweight title and was also for the vacant WBO-NABO lightweight title.

In the sixth round Crawford knocked Sanabria to the ground.

Though Sanabria was able to return to his feet within the count, the fight was waved off by referee Laurence Cole, giving Crawford a technical knockout (TKO) victory.

On August 21, 2013, it was announced that Crawford would fight undefeated Russian boxer and WBO #12 ranked Andrey Klimov in another elimination bout, which would see the winner challenge WBO champion Ricky Burns.

The fight was scheduled for ten rounds and took place on the undercard of Miguel Cotto vs. Delvin Rodriguez on HBO at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, on October 5.

Klimov was coming off a majority decision (MD) win over fringe contender John Molina Jr.. in June 2013.

After ten rounds, all three judges scored the fight 100–90 in Crawford's favour, Klimov's first defeat as a professional.

According to CompuBox stats, Crawford landed 192 of 604 punches (32%), whilst Klimov landed 57 of 290 (20%).

In the post-fight interview, Crawford spoke on how he went in and got the job done, "I outboxed him. It was easy all night long. I thought I was hurting him all night long. I was never in any trouble and I thought he was in trouble."

Due to Klimov's lack of action, it prompted a member of his team to call him a 'coward' after round eight in the corner.

Crawford was named Fighter of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America in 2014, and by ESPN in 2014 and 2017.

Crawford took up boxing at the age of seven.

He fought 70 official amateur bouts, losing 12 times.

As an amateur, he defeated future world champions Mikey Garcia and Danny García.

Crawford traveled to Scotland five months later to take on 30 year old Ricky Burns for the WBO lightweight title on March 1, 2014.

Burns' promoter, Eddie Hearn, said he was pleased to bring the fight to Scotland, and admitted it was Burns' toughest fight to date.

Crawford won the fight, boxing well on the outside and picking his shots against Burns, winning his first world title.

The judges scored the fight 117–111, and 116–112 both in favour of Crawford.

Burns praised Crawford after the fight, simply stating, "The better man won."

Over the twelve rounds, Crawford landed 213 of 811 punches thrown (26%) but landed 41% of his power punches.

Burns landed 76 of his 552 thrown (14%) and landed no more than 7 power punches per round.

In August 2017, Crawford had a short reign as the undisputed light welterweight champion, being the first since Kostya Tszyu in 2004, and the first in any weight class to simultaneously hold all four major world titles since Jermain Taylor in 2005.

In July 2023, he became the first male two-division undisputed champion of the four-belt era after defeating Errol Spence Jr..

As of August 2023, Crawford is ranked as the world's best active boxer, pound for pound, by The Ring, Boxing Writers Association of America, Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, ESPN, and BoxRec.