Crawford too good for Aussie fighter

With a bevy of punches in the ninth round, Terence Crawford solidified his case as one of the best pound-forpound boxers in the world.

Crawford dropped Jeff Horn with 50 seconds left in the ninth and sent him into the ropes with a slew of punches, ending the fight and winning the WBO welterweight title.

Referee Robert Byrd stopped the fight with 28s left in the round.

“Like I said before, I was the stronger guy,” said Crawford, who landed 48 per cent of his power shots according to CompuBox.

“He did everything we expected him to do. He came in there with the intention of roughing me up and getting aggressive. But the thing he didn’t understand was how strong I was. I think they underestimated me a little bit.’’

Crawford (33-0, 24 knockouts) moved up to the 147-pound division and became the sixth fighter in boxing history to win world titles in the lightweight, junior welterweight and welterweight divisions.

Crawford, 30, from Omaha, Nebraska, improved to 11-0 (eight knockouts) in world title fights, the most wins by an active American fighter.

The 30-year-old Horn (18-1-1, 12 knockouts) originally won the belt by decision from Manny Pacquiao last July in his home city of Brisbane. He fought once since, stopping Gary Corcoran in Brisbane in December to retain his title.

He wasn’t so fortunate against Crawford, who out-landed Horn 155-58 according to CompuBox. Horn landed just 6.4 punches per round. Crawford’s previous 10 opponents landed seven per round.

“He was hard to tag and he just kept me guessing,” Horn said. “He’s a classy fighter who fought a great fight.”

And while Horn’s trainer Glenn Rushton said Crawford was sharp by remaining patient for counterpunches, he didn’t think it was as dominant a fight as most others.

“When you’re away from home, you have to win your rounds more clearly. I thought there were some close rounds in there and it was definitely a premature stoppage,” Rushton said.

Promoter Bob Arum was lavish in his praise of Crawford.

“He reminds me of Sugar Ray Leonard. And that is a great, great compliment because I always thought Leonard was the best. And this guy is equal if not better than Ray was. The future is unlimited.”