Terence Crawford got to score a stoppage win over Amir Khan, but it came in perhaps the most unsatisfying way possible.
Early in the sixth round of their WBO welterweight title fight at Madison Square Garden, Crawford landed a left hand below the belt that left Khan unable to continue fighting. As such, Crawford was declared the winner of the fight by TKO and the 14,091 that attended the event left angry and confused over the ending of the fight. The fight headlined a Top Rank on ESPN pay-per-view card.
Crawford started the title bout off on the right foot, dropping Khan in the first round and nearly stopped him seconds later. Afterwards, Khan managed to find his rhythm and was able to connect a series of jabs and pushed Crawford back for certain stretches of the fight. For most of the fight, however, Crawford was outboxing and overpowering the challenger and the accidental low blow ended the show after Khan said he was unable to continue fighting.
As for what is next for Crawford expressed interest in facing IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. in a title unification.
“The fight I want next is Errol Spence. Whenever he is ready, he can come and get it,” Crawford said after the fight.
Top Rank CEO Bob Arum echoed Crawford’s sentiments. The one road bump preventing the fight from happening is the fact that Crawford fights for Top Rank on ESPN while Spence fights for Al Haymon’s PBC, which has network deals with Fox and Showtime. Arum called out Haymon in a post-fight interview.
“We want to fight Errol Spence. Everyone wants the fight. There is one guy stopping it, and that is Al Haymon,” Arum said.
This was Crawford’s second WBO welterweight title defense since winning the belt back in the summer of 2018 when he defeated Jeff Horn. Crawford would go on to retain the belt in the fall with a 12th round stoppage win over Jose Benavidez Jr.
