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Hellacious Terence Crawford right hand jab ends Kell Brook in fourth round of world title fight

Terence Crawford has shown himself to be one of the greatest active boxers with a stunning knockout statement in his title defence.

Terence Crawford is a bad bad man.
Terence Crawford is a bad bad man.

Terence Crawford has once again shown why he is one of the legends of boxing, defending his WBO welterweight title for the fourth time after a huge right hand jab knocked Brook into the ropes.

After Brook beat the count but didn’t look solid on his feet, Crawford went in for the kill, ending it in the fourth round with a flurry of hard punches before the referee waved it off.

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It sees Crawford, a three-weight multiple world champion, improve his unbeaten career to 37-0 with 28 knockouts.

Crawford won the welterweight belt after he stepped up to fight Aussie Jeff Horn in 2018, knocking him out with a ninth round stoppage.

The question before the fight was whether Crawford would be able to negate Brook’s height and reach advantages and early the British challenger was getting the better of the shots.

It could have just been rust with Crawford in his first fight of 2020, but Brook was slick early despite not having fought since February.

But the fourth round changed the fight with Crawford waiting for his moment, with a right hand jab nailing Brook.

WATCH IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ABOVE

Even Kell Brook was stunned by the punch.
Even Kell Brook was stunned by the punch.

Crawford admitted he started slow to work out the distance from the taller Brook but changed the momentum when he needed to.

“I was trying to gauge the distance. He had good distance. I was trying to find my distance and it was so competitive at first.”

“I stepped forward more, threw more punches and caught him some times.”

Brook said he thought he was controlling the fight — until Crawford changed in an instant.

“This is boxing. I obviously got caught with a shot I didn‘t see and the referee waved it off,” Brook said. ”That hasn’t happened to me before. I always said that if I am going to lose, I’m going out on my shield. The referee saw that I couldn’t continue and the fight is over. I don’t like to lose on an injury, I would rather go out on my shield and I did tonight.

“(Crawford) has got good distance and fast hands. He has a good eye to land his shot. Never in my career, nobody has ever done that to me, not even in sparring. I got caught with a shot I didn‘t see and the fight is over. Nobody could have got me in better condition. I felt great.”

Social media was quick to react to the hellacious punch.

As for what’s next for Crawford, the fans want him to take on Errol Spence Jr., the 26-0 WBC and IBF world welterweight champion.

But Crawford called out Manny Pacquiao, who he was set to fight before COVID.

“I already said who I want. I want Pacquiao. I want to revisit that fight.

“That was a fight that should’ve happened right now. But being that the pandemic happened, and they weren’t going to allow fans in the Middle East, they had to put a hold to that.

“Everything was 95 per cent done. We had the venue. The money was almost there. It wasn’t quite there. That was the only thing we were waiting on.”

An insane shot out of nowhere ended the fight in the fourth round.
An insane shot out of nowhere ended the fight in the fourth round.

But legendary promoter Bob Arum joined the call for Crawford-Spence, adding his own call out for the mega-fight.

“Errol Spence and Garcia are fighting Dec 5th. If they really wanna make a big PPV, I’ll put Terence Crawford in with both of them and he’d beat both on the same night. He is far and away the best welterweight in the world.

“Errol Spence will try to avoid Terence Crawford as long as he can because he knows he can’t beat Terence Crawford. You saw the performance tonight, he’ll take out Errol Spence in about the same number of rounds like he took out Kell Brook.”

FULL CARD

Terence Crawford def. Kell Brook in fourth round TKO — WBO welterweight world title

Joshua Franco vs. Andrew Moloney II, no contest — WBA super flyweight world title

Joshua Greer Jr. vs. Edwin Rodriguez in majority draw (77-75 Rodriguez, 76-76 x 3) — bantamweight

Tyler Howard def. KeAndrae Leatherwood in unanimous decision (77-74, 77-73, 76-74) — middleweight

Duke Ragan def. Sebastian Gutierrez in unanimous decision (40-35 x 3) — featherweight

Vegas Larfield vs. Juan Alberto Flores in third round TKO — bantamweight

Raymond Muratalla def. Luis Porozo in fourth round TKO — lightweight

Originally published as Hellacious Terence Crawford right hand jab ends Kell Brook in fourth round of world title fight

Original URL: https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/boxing-mma/hellacious-terence-crawford-right-hand-jab-ends-kell-brook-in-fourth-round-of-world-title-fight/news-story/589dc8972312f55efa9c599146d2be70