"The Truth" is Terence Crawford is the best boxer in the world ... and it might not even be close.
In what was billed by many as a 50-50 fight, Crawford delivered his best performance to date, dropping Errol Spence Jr. three times toward a ninth-round TKO to become the undisputed welterweight world champion Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
With an absolutely scintillating performance, Crawford improved to 40-0 with 31 knockouts, and became just the second boxer of all time to clinch back-to-back undisputed crowns in two different weight classes during the modern four-belt era. (The other being Claressa Shields).
"It means everything," Crawford told Showtime's Jim Gray of the scintillating victory, "because of who I took the belts from."
After dropping Spence with a left-right combination in the second round, Crawford began imposing his will on "The Truth" with each round thereafter.
In the seventh, he dropped Spence two more times. The first knockdown of the frame came on a counter right to the head and then he doubled up on right hooks during the waning seconds to record the third knockdown of the fight.
When the ninth round started, Crawford was ready to fillet the "Big Fish." He began connecting on unanswered punches — all landing flush and with power — toward the referee stepping in and stopping the fight due to too much punishment.
An absolutely dominating performance from "Bud" who left no doubts that the disparity between himself and the other fighters at 147 pounds is vast.
The keys of Crawford's victory over Spence were counterpunching with precise timing and accuracy and asserting his power jab — many times in traffic — to demoralize Spence and break his will.
The loss marked Spence's first career defeat and first time he was ever knocked down — happening three times Saturday night.
Here's how the entire Crawford vs. Spence main card went.