Las Vegas fight night: Crawford stops Porter in 10th round of very close fight
Plus: Porter retires, PPV undercard, preliminary bout coverage
LAS VEGAS — It was quite a night at Mandalay Bay on Saturday. Big fight, excited sold-out crowd of 11,568 at the Michelob ULTRA Arena, and a hell of a fight between Terence Crawford and Shawn Porter.
In an otherwise extremely close, competitive and entertaining showdown between good friends, Crawford retained his WBO welterweight title for the fifth time as he scored two knockdowns in the 10th round before Kenny Porter, Shawn’s father and trainer, stepped up onto the ring apron to signal surrender to referee Celestino Ruiz.
Crawford had craved a top opponent since moving up to welterweight in 2018 and he got in Porter, a former two-time welterweight titlist and his mandatory challenger. Now, Crawford has what is, so far at least, his career defining victory over a foe who had faced a who’s who of top welterweights in this era and never previously been stopped. Porter announced his retirement following the bout.
I covered the card for Ring magazine’s website, RingTV.com, and wrote all about it. Read my main event story here: https://www.ringtv.com/630801-terence-crawford-scores-career-defining-10th-round-stoppage-against-shawn-porter/
And here is my story on Porter’s heartfelt retirement announcement: https://www.ringtv.com/630822-shawn-porter-calls-time-on-showtime-retires-at-34-following-terence-crawford-defeat/
PPV undercard: Falcao wins eliminator
Middleweight contender Esquiva Falcao, a 2012 Brazilian Olympic silver medalist, won a sixth-round technical split decision over Patrice Volny in an IBF middleweight title elimination bout in the co-feature.
The fight was cut short in the sixth round when Falcao suffered a vertical cut over his left eye and was badly rattled. With Falcao unable to continue the was waved off by referee Mike Ortega and send to the scorecards for a technical decision, which Falcao won 58-57 and 58-56 on two scorecards while one judge favored Volny 58-56.
With the victory, Falcao, a pro since 2014, became the mandatory challenger for the winner of the unification fight between IBF titlist Gennadiy Golovkin and WBA counterpart Ryota Murata, who are scheduled to fight on Dec. 29 in Saitama, Japan on DAZN.
I wrote about that fight as well as the two other pay-per-view undercard bouts, middleweight Janibek Alimkhanuly one-sided eighth-round knockout of former middleweight titlist Hassan N’Dam; and lightweight prospect Raymond Muratalla’s fifth-round knockout out Elias Araujo. Please read that story here: https://www.ringtv.com/630797-esquiva-falcao-janibek-alimkhanuly-and-raymond-muratalla-score-wins-on-crawford-porter-undercard/
Prelims: Dogboe edges Diaz in action fight
Featherweight contender Isaac Dogboe scored a majority decision victory over Christopher “Pitufo” Diaz in a back-and-forth battle in an ESPN2-televised preliminary bout.
Dogboe, a former junior featherweight world titlist, won the entertaining bout 96-94 and 97-93 while one judge scored the fight 95-95.
I wrote about that fight as well as the rest of the prelims, including the featherweight rematch between Adam Lopez and Adan Ochoa that ended in a third-round no decision; junior lightweight prospect Karlos Balderas’ one-sided fourth-round knockout of Julio Cortez; and welterweight Tiger Johnson, 2020 U.S. Olympian from Cleveland, winning his professional debut by fourth-round knockout of Antonius Grable.
Please read that story here: https://www.ringtv.com/630792-crawford-porter-undercard-prelim-results-isaac-dogboe-edges-christopher-diaz/
Post-fight chat on iFL TV
After the Crawford-Porter post-fight news conference I joined my friends at iFL TV to chat about the fight, the stoppage, Porter’s retirement and Crawford’s free agency as his contract with Top Rank has now expired. Check out the video here:
Post-fight chat on Boxing Social
I also joined my friends at Boxing Social after the fight to discuss the action, the stoppage and Porter's retirement. Check out the video here:
Crawford-Porter scorecard
Here is the official scorecard from the fight:
Photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank
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Thanks for the great coverage Dan. It's interesting to hear some people who fully understand the stoppage, and others who were really surprised and baffled by it. Ultimately, Porter was very unlikely to win after being knocked down twice, especially knowing the scores at the time of the knockdowns. On another note, have you seen "Rocky v Drago" yet? I'm very curious about your thoughts. And - I signed up for the founder's membership and I'm looking forward to our chat. No rush at all. I know there's lots going on in boxing, and I'm sure it's keeping you busy, but whenever is good for you, please let me know. I'm really looking forward to it. Be well, and enjoy the DAZN and Showtime fights Saturday night!