Terence Crawford vs. Julius Indongo

Background

Crawford moved up to light welterweight in April 2015 after his WBO lightweight reign, winning the vacant WBO title against Thomas Dulorme. He unified the WBC and WBO belts by defeating Viktor Postol in July 2016, also capturing the vacant Ring magazine title. Indongo claimed the IBF and IBO light welterweight titles by beating Eduard Troyanovsky in December 2016, then took the WBA (Unified) title from Ricky Burns in April 2017. Indongo was stripped of the IBO title for refusing to pay sanctioning fees of $100,000 per fighter.

The winner would become the first undisputed light welterweight champion since Kostya Tszyu in 2004 and the first undisputed champion in any division since O'Neil Bell in 2006. The bout was the first to have all four major belts at stake since Bernard Hopkins vs. Jermain Taylor in 2005, though the WBO became a major title in 2007. Crawford entered as a heavy favorite.

The fight

The first round was tentative, with both fighters jabbing from the center of the ring and landing no significant punches. The second round began similarly until Crawford increased his output and dropped Indongo with a straight left hand with a minute left; Indongo rose before the count of five. In the third round, both fighters jabbed and missed with left hands for the first minute. Indongo then began combining punches and moving forward.

At the halfway point, as Indongo rushed in, Crawford landed two body punches, dropping Indongo onto his back. Referee Jack Reiss counted to ten, ending the fight. CompuBox showed Crawford landing 26 of 75 punches (35%) and Indongo 13 of 74 (18%).

Aftermath

Indongo said of Crawford's body shot, 'When he hit me like that, my mind was gone.' The card averaged 965,000 viewers on ESPN. Two days after the fight, the IBF ordered Crawford to face mandatory challenger Sergey Lipinets, who had been Indongo's mandatory since December 2016. Crawford vacated the IBF title 11 days after the fight, ending his undisputed reign. The IBF then ordered Lipinets to face Akihiro Kondo for the vacant title.