Omaha southpaw Terence “Bud” Crawford landed world title in his fourth weight class on August 3, when he faced Uzbekistan’s Israil Madrimov at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. The latter brought to the ring his WBA light middleweight belt, making the first championship defense. The contest followed performance by Eminem, who treated the crowd with some of his greatest hits.
The scheduled for 12 rounds world championship bout went the full distance. Crawford came out on top, earning the victory by unanimous decision. The scores were 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113.
With the win, Terence Crawford improved to 41-0, 31 KOs and became a new WBA 154 lbs champion. Earlier in his career he held titles at 135 lbs, 140 lbs and 147 lbs. In the next fight, the undefeated 36-year-old might be squaring off against Mexico’s super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, who was reportedly sent an offer.
Canelo, meanwhile, is scheduled to face Edgar Berlanga on September 14 in Las Vegas.
“If the money’s right, we got a fight, but at the same time, he’s got a fight that he’s focused on,” Crawford said about his potential showdown with Canelo. “I’m going to relax, enjoy this win.”
29-year-old Israil Madrimov dropped to 10-1-1, 7 KOs and lost the title.
In the co-feature on the card, Jose Valenzuela (14-2, 9 KOs) upset fellow-Mexican Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (26-3-1, 18 KOs). With the victory by split decision, the 25-year-old southpaw became a new WBA super lightweight champion. The scores were 116-112, 113-115 and 116-112.
Among other Crawford vs Madrimov results, former unified heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr (35-2-1, 22 KOs) of Imperial, CA and Brooklyn’s Jarrell Miller (26-1-2, 22 KOs) fought to a majority draw with the scores 112-116, 114-114, 114-114. Also at heavyweight, Congo’s Martin Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs) dropped and stopped Jared Anderson (17-1, 15 KOs) of Toledo, OH in the fifth round.
Plus, unbeaten Cuban David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) defeated Serbia’s Radivoje Kalajdzic (29-3, 21 KOs) by unanimous decision and took the vacant WBA light heavyweight title with the scores 118-110, 117-111, 117-111. In the PPV opener, Miami-based Cuban Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz (4-0, 2 KOs) retained his IBF International lightweight title via fifth-round stoppage against Mexico’s Antonio Moran (30-7-1, 21 KOs).