Terence Crawford Gets Narrow Victory Over Israil Madrimov
In his first fight in the junior middleweight division, Terence “Bud” Crawford (41-0, 31 KO) defeated WBA champion Israil “The Dream” Madrimov (10-1, 7 KOs) by a close unanimous decision.
As is typically the case, Crawford began the match slowly and methodically. While doing so, he routinely moved backward and tried to bait the champ into leading the action.
Madrimov was not willing to take much initiative. It resulted in The Dream not doing much early in the fight other than foot feints, bouncing outside of punching range, and landing the straight hand.
During the second half of the match, however, Madrimov became far more offensive. With his new surge, The Dream began connecting with regularity. Even still, Crawford generally landed the better shots in higher volume.
During the final two rounds, the combatants came to an all-out war. Despite the added aggression, neither boxer got overly reckless or seriously damaged their opponent. As a result, the fight would go to the scorecards, which marked the first time Crawford went to the judges in eight years.
The final cards revealed Bud as the victor, and the new WBA 154-pound title, by unanimous decision to the tune of 116-112 and 115-113 twice.
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