LAS VEGAS – In the end, it was Terence Crawford’s dance floor.
He danced with his family. Danced with his mom. Maybe he danced to the top of the pound-for-pound debate.
Neither the dance nor the debate figures to end anytime soon. Above all, Crawford proved he still belongs on any dance floor and in any debate with a 10th-round stoppage of Shawn Porter Saturday night in front of a capacity crowd at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena.
Porter came as advertised. He knows a lot of dance steps. But he couldn’t sustain them against the patient Crawford. He knows how to wait. Knows how to adjust. And how to finish.
The finish came at 1:21 of the 10th round after two knockdowns of Porter. Porter’s first trip to the canvas started with a left-uppercut from. The return trip started with a combination followed by a left hand to the head. Frustrated, Porter got up and stomped his foot.
But the gesture was futile. It was over. His father and trainer, Kenny Porter, was already up the steps with towel in hand. The towel was never thrown. The referee and inspector for the Nevada Commission saw it and acted. Kenny Porter would later say his son wasn’t properly prepared, confirming rumors that Shawn Porter had a problematic camp.
For Crawford, however, it was a moment that punctuated what he wanted to accomplish.
The belt, the World Boxing Organization’s version of the welterweight. Title, was still in his dangerous hands. More important, he strengthened his claim on the top spot in the pound-for-pound debate. Canelo Alvarez, are you listening?
One potential Crawford rival, however, was there. Listening and watching. Errol Spence had a ringside seat.
“Now wait, my thing is, who’s No. 1 in the welterweight division now?” Crawford said in a comment clearly intended for Spence.
At the top of the 147-pound division, it’s either Spence or Crawford. There is nobody else. Crawford made sure of it by eliminating Porter from any real say-so in the weight class. Crawford also has the last word, at least for now.
“You know who I want,’’ said Crawford, who collected about $6 million, $2 million more than Porter’s $4 million payday. “I’ve been calling him out all day. Maybe, Spence will get his tail out of his butt and fight me.’’
Maybe.
For now, there are questions about where Crawford is headed. Promotionally, he’s a free agent. His victory of Porter was the last fight on Top Rank contract.
Top Rank’s Bob Arum is confident he can re-sign him. Arum is already talking about a fight between Crawford and junior-welterweight champion Josh Taylor, who is preparing to move up in weight
For now, however, Crawford only wanted to celebrate a night that began with Porter coming out fast, moving forward and attacking throughout the first three minutes. For one round, it worked. He appeared to win the round with his aggressiveness.
He also was sending a message, one that he wore on the back of his black-and-orange robe. Marvelous War, it said. It was a tribute to legendary warrior, Marvin Hagler. It was note of respect to the past. But it was also a look at the immediate future, a sign of what Porter intended to do.
To wit: Crawford better be ready to brawl. He was. Porter unleashed a whirlwind of an arsenal — conventional, unconventional and often a blur of both.
“I figured that I had the reach and he had to take chances to come to him and he did what he normally does,’’ Crawford said. “He tried to maul and push me back but I used my angles and I pushed him back at times as well. Shawn Porter is a slick fighter he was doing some things in there and made me think
“I know I caught him with a good uppercut and then when I caught hidm with another left hook clean in his face that he was real hurt and his dad did the right thing by stopping it because I was coming with a vengeance.’’
In the end, there was nothing else to do but dance to Chaka Khan’ “Ain’t Nobody.’’
For one night, nobody but Terence Crawford.
Falcao wins technical decision in dull bout stopped by head butt
It was called an eliminator. In one way, it was. The crowd cheered when the final six rounds of the Esquiva Falcao-Patrice Volny was eliminated because head butt.
The butt came late in the sixth after Volny (16-1, 10 KOs), of Montreal, swung his head into Falcao’s face. The bout, so-called eliminator for a shot at the International Boxing Federation’s middleweight title. Everything before then was boring. Think deadly dull.
After it was determined that Falcao could not continue, the scorecards were turned in and counted. Two scores, 57-56 and 58-56 were for Falcao, an Olympic silver medalist from Brazil The third — a head scratcher — was for Volny, 86-84. Falcao (29-0, 20 KOs) got the victory by technical decision.
The crowd got some relief. At least, it was over.
Kazak middleweight Alimkhanuly wins stoppage
Janibek Alimkhanuly (11-0, 7KOs) ), a heavy-handed middleweight from Kazakhstan, administered a beating, landing lethal left hands that rocked Hassan N’Dam around the ring and off the ropes, virtually everywhere except on to the canvas.
Somehow, N’Dam (38-6, 21 KOs) , a former middleweight champion from Cameroon, stayed on his feet throughout the bout on a card featuring Crawford-Porter. But that wasn’t enough for him to have even a slim chance of winning. Finally, Kenny Bayless stopped it at 2:46 of the eighth round of a bout that could have easily been stopped a round or two earlier.
Unbeaten Raymond Muratalla wins fifth-round TKO
There was no stopping Raymond Muratalla (13-0, 11 KOs), a lightweight from Fontana CA. Elias Araujo (21-4, 8KOs), of Argentina, couldn’t. But Allen Huggins could. And did.
Huggins stepped in and ended the bout at 2:20 of the fifth round in the first ESPN + PPV bout on the Crawford-Porter card. Araujo protested, first in anger. Then, in tears. But the referee had seen enough. Muratalla began to land punch after punch. Blood began to drip from a cut on Araujo’s cheek and from his nose.
Huggins saved him from what would have been a bad beating.
Dogboe wins majority decision
LAS VEGAS –Isaac Dogboe, a fighter from Ghana once projected to be a star, continued to try to regain some of his abundant promise, scoring a narrow victory — majority decision — over Puerto Rican Christopher Diaz (26-4, 16 KOs) on a card featuring Crawford-Porter.
Dogboe , a former 122-pound champion now at featherweight, won his third straight since his career(26-4, 16 KOs) was sidetracked by successive losses to Emanuel Navarrete.
Head butt leads to no decision
There was blood. But there was no decision.
Adan Ochoa (12-2, 5 KOs), a featherweight from Long Beach CA, was badly cut above his right eye in a head butt with Adam Lopez (15-3, 6 LOs of Glendale CA during the first round of a scheduled eight-rounder. on the Crawford-Porter card.
Late in the second, the blood began to flow into Ochoa’s eye. Just as the bell rang to start the third, the fight was stopped, declared a no decision because it had not gone at least four rounds.
Karlos Balderas wins fourth-round stoppage
Karlos Balderas (11-1, 10 KOs), a junior-lightweight from Santa Maria CA, was bigger and just better, scoring repeatedly with combinations, including a headrocking left-right that finished Julio Cortez (15-4, 11 KOs) of Ecuador at 2:13 of the fourth round in the second bout on the Crawford-Porter card.
First Bell: Tiger Jonson kicks off his career and Crawford-Porter card with TKO win
It was first bell. A debut, too.
Tiger Johnson, a welterweight from Cleveland, kicked off his career and the card featuring Terence Crawford-versus-Shawn Porter with a stoppage of Antonius Grable (3-3-1, 3 KOs) in a Saturday matinee at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena.
Johnson landed successive right hands, leaving Grable of Sarasota, FL dazed and done at 1:54 of the fourth round.
Just to make sure that everybody noticed, celebrated by walking toward retired welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, who was already in his ringside seat for he ESPN + pay-per-view telecast..
“I’m here, Tim,” Johnson shouted as he leaned over the ropes. “I’m here.”
