By Mark Eisner: WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) did what everyone expected him to on Saturday night, stopping #6 David Avanesyan (29-4-1, 17 KOs) in round six on BLK Prime PPV at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
Crawford lined Avanesyan up for a left hand and blasted him out in the sixth round. It was a good finish for a fight that was less than thrilling to watch.
Crawford doesn’t have an entertaining fighting style, given that he’s a southpaw counterpuncher who tends to focus on reacting to shots rather than initiating offense on his own.
Avanesyan had his moments in the fight, landing many clean shots to make it interesting at times.
Undercard results
- Female junior middleweight Cris Cyborg (2-0, 1 KO) defeated winless Gabby Holloway (0-3) by a four round unanimous decision. The scores were 40-35, 40-34, and 39-36. The heavy-handed Cyborg knocked Holloway down in the third round.
- Featherweight Arnold Khegai (19-1-1, 11 KOs) defeated Eduardo Baez (21-4-2, 7 KOs) by a 10 round split decision. The judges scored it 96-93, 95-94 for Khegai, and 95-94 for Baez. The referee docked Khegai a point in round nine for clinching too frequently.
- In a one-sided affair, heavyweight prospect Jeremiah Milton (8-0, 6 KOs) defeated Dajuan Calloway (5-2, 5 KOs) by a six round unanimous decision. The judges scored it 59-55, 59-55, and 58-56.
- Undefeated light heavyweight Steven Nelson (18-0, 15 KOs) TKO’d James Ballard (10-5, 3 KOs) in the first round.
Preview: The 35-year-old Bud Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) is getting paid a truckload of money to defend against Avanesyan by BLK Prime. Still, it could come at a high cost due to his questionable move of walking away from negotiations for a far bigger fight against Errol Spence Jr.
The move on Crawford has fed the perception from fans that he lost his nerve and wanted to continue fighting the fringe-level opposition that he’d been fighting.
If Crawford fails to get the Spence fight in the future, he could regret his decision to walk away from the negotiations with Spence. Of course, if Crawford’s move was made as a way of swerving Spence, then there probably won’t be regret.
Crawford has been paid well for fighting guys like Amir Khan, Kell Brook, and Shawn Porter. Why mess up that money by fighting Spence and potentially getting beaten?
Assuming Crawford wins tonight against Avanesyan, the easiest fight to get made is against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. He’d jump at the chance to fight Crawford to dethrone him and take over as the new WBO welterweight champion.
“He’s tough, Avanesyan is tough, man,” said Crawford’s long-time trainer Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre to Fighthype about David Avanesyan being a tough out for WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford tonight.
“He’s a great counterpunch, and he’s fast too. He’s quick on his feet. He’ll close that distance in a minute. We got our work cut out for us, but I’m excited just for the challenge. We want those big fights to happen,” said BoMac about Crawford fighting Errol Spence Jr and Jermell Charlo.
“It’s all about making sure the business gets lined up the right way, and if it does, we’ll tackle that. We’ll tackle those big fights. Charlo, Spence, whoever is out there that ways to fight.”
Terence Crawford headlines tonight in the much-criticized title defense of his WBO welterweight belt on BLK Prime pay-per-view against David Avanesyan (29-3-1, 17 KOs) in a 12-lb bout at the Chi Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Crawford-Avaneysan has a start time of 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 pm PT and can be seen on BLK Prime and PPV.com for $39.99. That’s cheap by today’s standards. However, the fans need to be aware that the undercard isn’t exactly stacked with talent.