Terence Crawford TKOs Jeff Horn In Scintillating Performance To Win Welterweight Title

POSTFIGHT: Crawford said he doesn’t get enough credit for being strong. But he said he proved it, especially as former junior welterweight moving up to welterweight.

“My power carried up,” Crawford.

Here’s how the fight ended.


The fight is over! @budcrawford402 stops @jeffhornboxer in the 9th #CrawfordHorn pic.twitter.com/26GKv5hvL4

— Tony Cordasco (@TonyDasco) June 10, 2018

Crawford said he wants the other champions in the division. For the record, that’s Keith Thurman, Errol Spence, and the winner of Shawn Porter-Danny Garcia. Obviously, a Crawford-Spence fight would be one of the biggest bouts that could be made in the sport.


Afterward, Horn told ESPN that he thought he could beat Crawford coming forward. He also said Crawford was strong and quite a good boxer. “He didn’t seem like a smaller guy, that’s for sure,” Horn said.

As a side note, I’m not a huge fan of Robert Byrd. I think he’s overrated as a referee. But he did a nice job tonight, and though I think it was the slightest bit premature, he still made the right call to stop the fight when he did.


Ninth round: Three left hooks in a row for Crawford. Horn is still coming forward. He still has energy. But so far, he’s got nothing Crawford needs to worry about. Crawford looks very fresh still. Big left by Crawford with a minute to go, and more combos. And Horn touches his gloves to the mat. Counts as a knockdown. Crawford still blasting away, and Robert Byrd STOPS THE FIGHT. It’s over. TKO for Crawford.

Eighth round: Another round and Crawford keeps popping back Horn’s head. Crawford switches back to the orthodox stance, and he blasts Horn with a body shot. Then, a pounding uppercut. He’s nailing Horn with left hooks. Horn continues to take them well. And now Horn seems stunned. He is blasting him with hooks and hooks and hooks. Horn tries to fire back. But he’s getting staffed. He lands a stunning punch at the end of the round, and Horn almost goes down. Forbes scores it for Crawford.

Overall: Crawford 80-72

Seventh round: Between rounds, ref Robert Byrd was taking a real close look at Horn’s corner. The big problem for Horn in this fight is that Crawford is just so good at fighting while going backward. That takes away a big advantage for Horn as he puts his head down and charges. Byrd, by the way, tells Horn not to lead with his head. A lead left lands on Horn’s face. Horn kind of seems out of ideas about what to do. Aside from getting hit with hellacious body shots. Horn seems tired. Forbes scores it for Crawford.


Overall: Crawford 70-63

Sixth round: Horn gets in and lands a right. But Crawford punishes him with about four punches and then lands a real scorcher to the body. Another big left to the body landed on Horn, and he doubles over. I would not be surprised to see Crawford end this fight with a body punch. Forbes scores it for Crawford.

Overall: Crawford 60-54

Fifth round: Big right at the end of a combination for Crawford. Then, a shot to the body for Crawford. He is so very clearly on a different level than Horn. Horn is still showing plenty of confidence and will. But he has to be getting frustrated. Horn traps Crawford on the ropes and lands a few shots before Crawford moves away. Ref Robert Byrd warns Horn for holding. And Crawford is walloping Horn quite badly. Horn is cut over his left eye. Crawford pushes him into the ropes. He is in complete control. Forbes scores it for Crawford.

Overall: Crawford 50-45

Fourth round: Halfway through, Horn lands a little something on Crawford as he moves forward. But Horn is mostly wrestling and not landing much clean. He’s doing a little more than Crawford this round, though. Oh, big right by Crawford in the middle of the ring. Crawford is coming forward more often and landing punches first. Forbes scores it for Crawford.

Overall: Crawford 40-36

Third round: Between rounds, Horn’s corner is telling him that things are going well. And they are going pretty well. He’s just not winning the fight so far. Sharp jab landed by Horn, but Crawford is getting the better of these exchanges. Horn is still being aggressive and is still lunging in, but Crawford is catching him a lot. Big straight left landed by Crawford halfway through the round, and that got the crowd excited. It seems like Crawford is figuring him out. Big round for Crawford. Forbes scores it for Crawford.


Overall: Crawford 30-27

Second round: Crawford mostly fighting as a southpaw. But he’s good with either hand and lands a shot to Horn’s belly early. Horn is trying to use his elbows and his forearms on Crawford. But he’s not landing many effective shots. Crawford also isn’t finding Horn an easy opponent so far. Crawford, though, is finding some success to the body. Then, with a minute left, a nice left hook by Crawford to Horn’s face. Crawford ends the round with a sneaky uppercut. Forbes scores it for Crawford.

Overall: Crawford 20-18

First round: Horn comes out a little more aggressive. Crawford counters with a left to the body 30 seconds in. Big left by Crawford briefly wobbles Horn. Like usual, Horn barrels his way in there and this time, he lands a nice right. Crawford took it fine. ESPN is commenting on how Horn’s body is more muscular than it was when he beat Pacquiao. We might get to see how good Crawford’s chin is. Forbes scores it for Crawford.

Overall: Crawford 10-9

Jeff Horn ringwalk: It has to be federal law, I assume, that an Australian boxer must come to the ring accompanied by AC/DC. Check that off for Horn, who then switches it up and goes with “Seven Nation Army.” He’s jogging slowly to the ring. He looks focused and ready to go. The crowd isn’t quite as happy to see him.

Terence Crawford ringwalk: Yep, Crawford is coming out first, because Horn is the champion (even though Crawford is getting twice as much money). But Crawford is smiling as he half-dances to the ring. He’s shaking his head to the beat of the music, and he’s just kind of grooving along. He’s in no hurry to get going. It’s pretty quiet, until he makes his way up the steps to the ring. Then, the crowd erupts.

UNDERCARD:

Jose Pedraza (24-1, 12 KOs) UD win over Antonio Moran (22-3): In a bloody fight, Pedraza won a hard-fought decision vs. a tough opponent in Moran. All three judges had it 96-94 (Forbes scored it 97-93). The last time we saw Pedraza, the former junior lightweight titlist, he was getting stopped by Gervonta Davis in January 2017. It took him a while to get into rhythm on Saturday—I had Moran winning the first three rounds—but Pedraza adjusted after the pace slowed. Pedraza appeared to hurt Moran numerous times with body shots, and that was a big difference. After the fight, Pedraza said he wanted a shot against 135-pound titlist Ray Beltran.

Prediction: Crawford is one of the best fighters in the world, and he’s facing a guy who’s not nearly on his skill level. Yes, Horn is bigger and probably stronger. But Crawford is going to get the victory, and he’s going to do it by stopping Horn in the 10th round.

Odds: Crawford is a -600 favorite, meaning you’d have to wager $600 to make $100. Horn, meanwhile, is a +400 underdog, which means that you’d earn $400 on a $100 wager. But there’s little question the money in the past few days has come in on Horn.


At the beginning of the month, Crawford was a much bigger favorite at -1000, and Horn was +600. But throughout the past week, the odds on Crawford dropped from -850 to -750, and Horn’s numbers went to +575 and eventually +475.

Obviously, Crawford is still the big favorite, but plenty of bettors have placed their money on Horn.

Purses: Crawford is making a career-high $3 million guarantee for the bout, while Horn is making a $1.25 million guarantee. It’s a nice raise for Horn, who made a $500,000 purse vs. Pacquiao that eventually yielded him about $1 million after he attracted more than 50,000 fans to a stadium in Australia for that matchup.

On the undercard, Jose Pedraza is making $35,000 to fight Antonio Moran, who’s earning $12,500. Earlier this year, in a losing effort vs. Gervonta Davis, Pedraza made a $225,000 payday.

How to stream the fight: The bout isn’t available on American TV. Instead, you’ll have to download and/or watch it via the ESPN+ app. The OTT streaming service costs $4.99 per month, but it also offers a free seven-day trial.

Terence Crawford makes his welterweight debut on Saturday in Las Vegas, and he’s immediately going after titlist Jeff Horn—who surprised much of the boxing world last year by upsetting Manny Pacquiao. But Horn probably has an even tougher assignment in Crawford.


Yes, Crawford is moving up seven pounds, but he’s also one of the best fighters in the world—ranked No. 2 by the Boxing Writers and No. 7 in my Pound-For-Pound Moneymakers list. Besides, many people, including me, thought Pacquiao actually won the fight vs. Horn, and that, though Horn is tough and rugged and physical, Crawford will probably beat him with relative ease (though at least one boxer predicted a Horn win).

Horn said he saw Crawford shaking with nervous energy at the weigh-in on Friday, while Crawford said he heard the same criticism about moving up in weight when he went from lightweight to junior welterweight (and of course, he eventually unified all four titles at 140 pounds). And it sounds like Horn has annoyed him this week.

“I’m just tired of hearing all of their excuses on gloves and the referee,” Crawford said during a conference call. “You can only hear so much, and I’m just ready to go out there and shut him up.”


Either way, Forbes will be here for the fight, giving our round-by-round thoughts, explanations and unofficial scoring.

While you’re waiting, make sure to read all the other Forbes boxing coverage from this week: