Video: Bud Crawford Dominates, Stops Felix Diaz in HBO Headliner

Clearly one of the best boxers in the sport today, Terence Crawford proved to be too much for 2008 Olympic gold medalist Felix Diaz to handle. Crawford used his excellent movement and spacing to control the pace of the bout early and never allowed his challenger to find a rhythm at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Crawford raked Diaz with his jab, dug vicious shots to the body and countered effectively whenever his foe tried to get things going. “Bud” peppered Diaz (19-2, 9 KOs) throughout with punches to the head and body, but as the fight wore on, Diaz’ vision weakened. With the fight out of hand going into the championship rounds, Diaz’ corner decided to throw in towel at the conclusion of the 10th. The win allowed Crawford (31-0, 22 KOs) to retain his WBC and WBO super lightweight world titles.

In the HBO-televised co-feature, former lightweight world title challenger Ray Beltran blew away Jonathan Maicelo in the second. Beltran (330701, 21 KOs) was felled in the first and it seems like he was going to be in a god fight. But a perfect left hook to the jaw knocked Maicelo out cold in the following stanza, ending the fight emphatically. The brutal knockout came at the 1:25 mark and Maicelo (25-3, 12 KOs) was taken out of the ring on a stretcher.

2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson improved to 2-0 on got his first career knockout by stopping Carlos Suarez (6-4-2, 1 KO) in the first. After Suarez was dropped, he climbed back to his feet but was too unsteady and the fight was halted at the 2:35 mark.