Fight night at Garden ends on a low note

Main event marred by blow below the belt; Khan can’t continue, so Crawford gets win.

NEW YORK — An accidental low blow delivered by Terence Crawford brought a sudden ending to his welterweight title defense against Amir Khan on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.

As Khan was writhing in pain from the sixth-round punch, his trainer, Virgil Hunter, reported that he no longer could fight, making Crawford the winner by technical knockout.

“I didn’t want to send him back out there without his legs … he was in paralyzing type of pain,” Hunter said.

Crawford (35-0, 26 knockouts) knocked down Khan (33-5) in the first round on an overhand right to the top of the head. That harmed Khan’s strategy to try to rack up early rounds and eke out a decision.

Instead, banged up, he absorbed more blows in the next four rounds as Crawford, ranked the No. 1 pound-forpound fighter by The Times, delivered punches.

Khan was shaking his right hand in the third round as if he hurt that too. Then, in the sixth, Crawford sent a punch that struck below the belt, and Khan bowed in agony.

“Khan could have recovered. He had five minutes to recover. He was looking for a way out,” Crawford promoter Bob Arum said. “He was looking for a place to fall. I don’t think Khan wanted to continue, and the next round or two would’ve ended the fight anyway.”

The crowd of 14,091 booed, as those who paid $70 for the pay-per-view likely were too.

“I could tell I was breaking him down. It was just a matter of time,” Crawford said. “I just took my time. I was disappointed the corner stopped the fight in that manner, but Virgil is a great coach, and he was looking out for his fighter. I know he didn’t want to go out like that.”

Hunter said Khan didn’t object to his decision, elaborating, “If you get hit wrong in the testicles, five minutes is not enough.”

In victory, Crawford called for fellow unbeaten welterweight Errol Spence Jr., the International Boxing Federation champion who fights for Arum’s rival Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions.

But Arum unleashed a blistering post-fight tirade at Haymon, accusing him of being committed to never allowing a Crawford-Spence bout. He went as far as urging fans not to support PBC bouts.

“Spence won’t fight Crawford not because of Spence, but because of Al Haymon,” Arum said. “People have to realize he is ruining the sport of boxing.

“To not make a Spence fight with Crawford, which is a fight that all fight fans want, why? He only has his fighters fight in his own camp unless he gets fighters he knows his fighters can beat . ... Spence believes he will beat Crawford. Al Haymon does not believe.”

In the co-main event, Teofimo Lopez remained in quite the hurry to become a world champion.

“I’m moving on to the main stage,” Lopez (13-0, 11 knockouts) said after knocking out his fifth foe in five bouts at the Garden by finishing Finland’s Edis Tatli 1 minute 32 seconds into the fifth round.

Lopez maintained pressure and delivered a hard right to the gut that caused Tatli to crumble to his knees on the canvas, and he failed to stand by the count of 10.

The victory moves Lopez to that main event he wants in July, when he’s expected to challenge IBF champion Richard Commey.

Earlier, Shakur Stevenson stepped up in class impressively by overwhelming recent 130-pound title challenger Christopher Diaz by scores of 100-90, 99-91, 98-92 in a featherweight bout.

Stevenson, a 2016 U.S. Olympic silver medalist who occasionally spars with his close friend Crawford, showed the benefits of that work by complementing his gifted hand speed by fighting inside at times with Diaz. Stevenson (11-0) peppered Diaz (24-2) and rattled his head with a combination in the fifth, then buckled his knees with a left to the head in the sixth.

“He’s a great fighter, but I came in there to outbox him, and that’s exactly what I did,” Stevenson said.