The American two-weight world title holder defeated Ukrainian Viktor Postol via a wide points decision after a dominant performance at the world famous MGM Grand.
Crawford, 28, was a big favourite heading into the contest, and so it proved to be the case, as ‘Bud’ took control of the fight in the early rounds. By the fifth, Postol was already getting desperate and was subsequently dropped twice in the round to open up a wide gap on the cards.
Rather than go for the finish over the next few rounds, Crawford was content to cruise to the final bell and went even further ahead in the fight by the eleventh when Postol was deducted a point for hitting behind the head.
At the end, Crawford was declared the winner by a convincing margin 118-107 (twice) and 117-108 in the judges’ eyes and improves to 29-0. Postol suffered his first loss in 29 bouts and will need to evaluate where he goes next after what was a disappointing night.
In the co-feature, 25 year-old Mexican Oscar Valdez stopped Matias Rueda in the second round to claim the vacant WBO featherweight title and push his C.V to 20-0 in the process, whilst light heavyweight Oleksandr Gvozdyk blasted out Tommy Karpency in six to remain undefeated in eleven bouts.
At welterweight, Jose Benavidez is now 25-0 following a unanimous points victory over Francisco Santana, whilst Leonardo ‘Zappa’ Zappavigna shocked IK Yang in the sixth to inflict a second loss on the Chinese star.
Japan’s Ryota Murata had better luck in taking out George Tahdooahnippah in the very first round for an impressive triumph at 160 pounds.
