Terence Crawford won a world title in a fourth division this past weekend, beating Israil Madrimov over the distance in Los Angeles.
It was the end of a run of 11 stoppage wins for the American, who has previously been champion at lightweight and undisputed at super-lightweight and welterweight.
He managed to showcase his pound-for-pound skills throughout the fight but it was punctuated with success from Madrimov, who used feints and impressive movement to keep it competitive.
In the end, the judges scored it unanimously in favour of Crawford with scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113. Madrimov’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, took serious issue with the cards post-fight, believing ‘Bud’ didn’t do enough to snatch the belt from the champion.
Speaking on The Stomping Ground, two-weight world champion Teofimo Lopez spoke to Hearn about the scoring of the fight and revealed that he had Madrimov winning by one round.
“I think [Crawford] had a lot of difficulties with [Madrimov] tonight. The movement, everything like that, the herky-jerky style, I think that was confusing Crawford a lot, especially with that long layoff. You know, it’s boxing. Boxing is business … I look at it as 115-113, Madrimov.”
Lopez has continued to call for a fight with Crawford, saying he is willing to meet him at super-welterweight despite currently holding the WBO Super-Lightweight Title.
Where the 36-year-old from Omaha goes next is up in the air. After chasing a fight with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez for the best part of a year, Riyadh Season’s Turki Alalshikh – the man behind the biggest shows in boxing just now – surprisingly took it off the table this week after sending an offer.
Crawford may look to stick around super-welterweight instead and unify the belts once more.
