Dominant Crawford beats Beltran
WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (25-0, 17 KOs) successfully defended his belt against Mexican challenger Raymundo Beltran (29-7-1, 17 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
The American completely outboxed Beltran for the full 12 rounds to win by scores of 119-109, 119-109, 120-108.
Crawford was much quicker and usually beat Beltran to the punch. Beltran was always game but could only land single shots at a time before Crawford created space and landed hooks and uppercuts from distance while making Beltran miss.
Despite taking more hard shots in the closing rounds, Beltran continued to plough forward and make a fight of it until the final bell.
Crawford will now move up from the 135-pound division to 140 pounds.
Also on the card, IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich (19-0-1, 9 KOs) and Jayson Velez (22-0-1, 16 KOs) fought to a draw over 12 good action rounds. Therefore Gradovich retained his title.
The judges scored the fight 117-111 for Gradovich, 115-113 for Velez and 114-114 even.