Terence “Bud” Crawford did his part to merit a fight with Manny Pacquiao, stopping Dierry Jean in the 10th round to retain the WBO junior welterweight title on Saturday night.
The unbeaten Crawford knocked down Jean in the first and ninth rounds, and then used a flurry of punches to cause him to buckle into the ropes at the 2 minutes, 30 seconds mark, prompting referee Tony Weeks to end the fight before a crowd of 11,020 at the CenturyLink Center.
The impressive performance in the scheduled 12-round fight set up a possible bout for Crawford (27-0, 19 knockouts) against Pacquiao.
Photo: AP
Crawford, who also holds the WBO lightweight belt, is 5-0 in world title fights with three technical knockouts. It was Crawford’s third title defense in his hometown.
The Haitian-born Jean (29-2), who fights out of Montreal, landed only a few good shots on Crawford, and that seemed to motivate the champ more.
“I did whatever I wanted to do,” Crawford said. “He said he had punching power, but he had none. I controlled him. I had no problem moving around.”
Crawford now waits to see if the 36-year-old Pacquiao wants to fight him before going into retirement. Another candidate for Pacquiao is Tim Bradley, who fights Brandon Rios on Nov. 7.
“It would be one hell of a fight,” Top Rank chief executive officer Bob Arum said. “The next step is for Manny to review the tapes from tonight’s fight, and we also have to wait for the result of Nov. 7, then we will regroup after that.”
Crawford came out as the aggressor and seemed to flummox Jean with his southpaw stance.
He knocked down Jean with a left hook late in the first round, staggered him late in the second and knocked him down again late in the ninth with a left-right-left combination.
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