WBO welter king Crawford KOs Kavaliauskas

Photos: Emily Harney

WBO welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) scored a ninth round KO over a determined Egidijus “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas (21-1-1, 17 KOs) on Saturday night in front of a crowd of 10,101 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Kavaliauskas landed a flush right hand in round two and arguably knocked down Crawford with another right hand in round three (ruled a slip).

Crawford Machine001
Photo: Emily Harney

Looking to get some payback, Crawford upped the aggression in round four and walked down Kavaliauskas after that. Crawford dropped Kavaliauskas with a barrage of punches in round seven. The end came in round nine when Crawford dropped Kavaliauskas with a combination then finished him with a monster right hook. Time was :44.

“I thought I had to entertain ya’ll for a little bit. He’s a strong fighter, durable, and I thought I’d give the crowd something to cheer for,” said Crawford afterward. “I wasn’t hurt at all. I got up and went straight to him. I wasn’t hurt by no means, I walked through everything he threw all night.”

“The round before that, my coaches kept telling me stop loading up. I was loading up a lot because the first couple clean shots I landed, I knew I hurt him. I wanted to give the crowd a knockout. When I started letting my hands go, I started landing more fatal shots.”

I’ll fight anybody. I’ve been saying that for I don’t know how long. I’m not ducking anyone on the PBC side or Top Rank platform. I want to fight all the top guys.”


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  • Terrible stoppage!

    Kav deserved one more chance! He wasn’t hurt to the point of stopping the fight.

    • May just be me, but since the death of Patrick Day, the refs appear to be more attentive in stopping fights sooner for the fighter’s protection.

    • Agree Juan. These are championsip fights. These guys deserve a bit more time to see if they can recover.

  • Good fight but Crawford was knocked down early in the fight. However as always Crawford showed extreme talent and power which makes him dangerous.

  • Premature stoppage, just like the Commey fight. ESPN fighters always get the benefit of the doubt.

    • PBC fighters have no problem fighting Bud they definitely aren’t scared. Funny how when Arum does it Top Rank fighters only fighting top rank it’s ok. Mikey Garcia constantly called out Loma but that fight never happened he only fights Top rank fighters. Bud is a great fighter but all of the top PBC fighters are better than Kavaliauskas and he buzzed Bud so I see the PBC guys as a serious problem and they hit harder.

      • If they PBC wanted to make the fight, they would. Somehow Wilder is fighting Fury. PBC is doing smart business. They making money, while fooling the public into thinking their welterweights are the only food fighters. Bud just beat another undefeated fighter. W never heard of him, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t good. Salvador Sanchez has a big problem with a then uknown named Azumah Nelson who turned out to be a great fighter. This guy bud just beat, would give all those PBC fighters problems.

  • This fight was no means a statement!, Crawford looks venerable and would prob get KO’ed fighting one of the other Champs.

  • I told you guys to stop downplaying these top fighters! Mean machine was in there for a reason. Idiots think just because you know a name that means the fight will be easy!

  • Porter wants to fight Crawford and has been calling him out for a long while. Spence May be done

    • Porter would say or do anything at this point of his career to get a crack at any title.

  • He’s the best in boxing period. Canelo might be P4P number 1 right now but it’s actually Crawford. Nobody does this. Move up. Then adjust to a bigger stronger fighter and maul him.

    • Nobody does this? Do you have selective amnesia or something? Lomachenko is a featherweight fighting big light weights and either shutting them out or knocking them out. He’s about to fight gigantic big punching Teofimo Lopez. Crawford is #1 p4p only to his racist fans and the North American boxing establishment. To the aficionados who write the history books, Lomachenko is the real pound-for-pound king. Casuals/racists like you need to get that through your head.

      • Loma has only moved 2 classes equal to 7 pounds . Crawford moved up 12. And just out muscled him. Straight forward. Yeah nobody bud.

        • Learn to add. 126 to 135 is 9 lb and is proportionate 2 crawfords 12 lb at a higher weight. it is apples-to-oranges but the fact remains that lomachenko has fought the much better opposition than Crawford has. Yours and my opinion matters not. I am just stating facts.

          • Lol. Yeah 3 pounds it’s harder for Loma. Your actually wrong. The higher the weight the more impact. There are even glove sizes for that purpose. Learn boxing dude and then come back to me. Loma is good but is maxed out in weight, Crawford has more to offer. Sounds like your the one who may want to check to see if your a racist. Better opponents? Walters was overated and it showed in other bouts he had. Rigindeux was smaller and looked even smaller in the ring. He lost to Salido. Best guy he beat was a split decision win.

      • Racist. Your not very smart. Canelo is P4P king right now according to The Ring and BoxRec last I looked. Way more reliable than you. I can tell by your comments you don’t know very much about boxing. Always trying to bring race into. Your sad.

        • Lol, if you’re going by the magazine that canelo’s promoter owns is dictating who the best fighter in the world is then you’re even stupider than I thought. Boxrec rankings? Not doing yourself any favors kid. As far as racism, the very definition of that word is to alienate or malign a specific race which is exactly what the boxing world does to Eastern European and Russian fighters. Denial on your part doesn’t change that fact. And recent elections around the world show that people agree with me and not you. We have all grown tiresome of people like you.

          • Lol. Your a joke dude. I like Loma. But he hasn’t done anything more special than Crawford or Canelo. And The Ring is considered the Bible of boxing. You are obviously a race baiting troll . No offense. I’m a Golden globe champion, have judged pro fights and reffed countless golden globe championships. Canelo 1, Loma 2 Crawford 3. But there is always debate. You don’t know what racism is.

          • Canelo has a way better resume than anyone in boxing besides paq but he has more serious losses. Canelo is number 1 period.

      • You embarrassed yourself with this post. The way your post is written shows your pigheaded and race biased yourself. You should be stripped of your ‘Interim title’ and never even get anymore consideration on this forum.

  • I think Crawford deserves a Pacquiao match for a career pay day and an entertaining fight for us in the spring, fall bring on Crawford vs Vergil Ortiz! Then move up and take on the Charlo brothers (lighter first) and then a career super fight at 160 vs Canelo as Crawford could be 40-0

  • Well,Well,Well, we knew before hand that this was going to be a night for boxing. From the 1st fight with Mick Conlin getting his redemption, against the Russian fighter to the fabulously brutal 2nd fight between Commey/Lopez. I had felt it was a 50/50 toss up fight, with Lopez having a bit of an edge in this one. Well i did not think that Lopez was going to do a Jack Dempsey SAVAGE beatdown on Commey. This Lopez showed his killer instinct and for sure made it his business to let everyone know he is an OLD SCHOOL let’s not B.S type of fighter. Commey who I held in high regard (and still do)had nothing for Lopez, who at 22 years of age really took center stage. MSG was rockin big time because he provided so much energy it was something to behold.Major props to this real fighter. Now we get to Bud Crawford, well well, Crawford brought out the Holyfield in him, because when he was a bit hurt, he decided to turn on his EVANDER in him. This Crawford is something else another OLD SCHOOL real fighter who can win in so many ways, he can outbox you, outfox you, out jab you, and bang your head off when he feels the time is right. The mean machine was a guy that you had to beat up and hurt because this man was not there to lose or quit, he came to fight, and he is another fighter thats for real. But this Crawford is the best welter by FAAAR. The other so called champs (except Pacman) will find anyway they can to avoid this fine tuned killer. The way Crawford went about breaking down his opponent was a thing of beauty, Crawford I.M.O owns that welter division. FINALLY a night of no judge fixing, no DAZN B.S, no WBA/WBC rigged garbage , or DElaHO/WWE nonsense, just an amazing night in the garden and everyone was rockin. About time!!!!!

  • The thing about Crawford is that he has so many different styles. He can become any type of fighter with any style including different stances. He could have boxed and played it safe but decided to fight fire with fire.. he doesn’t want to quit and doesn’t want to accept to be defeated on top of that he has skills.. that’s why I say he’s the man. A lot of these guys want to be celebrities and when it gets tough they want to quit because they’d rather play it safe.. bud is a fighter. You hurt him he wants to hurt you back.. with so many tools to use. I personally have not seen a boring Crawford fight because even when he’s winning he wants to get a ko in the 12th round for the fans. And fans like me appreciate it. But more defense next time.. lol

  • I just got finished watching the fight and I have to say but that was a very dominant performance against a good-but-not-great fighter. I like how after mean machine staggered him in the third round, that he said F it to boxing and made it a fight. Kavaliauskas is too peg legged to keep up with somebody like Crawford. Spence needs to man up and fight Bud, but he won’t because he’s part of the Haymon protection services over at PBC.

    • Nobody calls Arum out he doesn’t do business with PBC, the problem now is he doesn’t have any good welterweights in his stable. When he had Pac-Man, Bradley and Marquez he was cool with them fighting each other. Why didn’t Loma fight Mikey? Because he’s not a PBC fighter, funny how Arum acts like the victim now that he doesn’t have any fighters with a name and Bud should have weighed his options before signing his deal knowing all the talent was with PBC.

      • Well, first it’s not that lomachenko didn’t fight Mikey it’s that Mikey ran up to 147 and dodged lomachenko. 2nd, Arum has done business with cross promoters before, but Haymon is all about low risk high reward for his fighters and is probably shrewder then the Jew. Haymon protection services go back a long way. Lastly, when bud signed with top rank, 147 had not yet heated up like it is now. So, this is hindsight is 20/20 that happened to Crawford. Blame the promoters in this corrupt business, not the fighters.

        • Yeah he went up 12 pounds to face the fastest rising P4P fighter who hits way harder. Dodged a guy that he would be a slight underdog to a fight he was pegged to lose by KO by everyone. Lol

  • Crawford showed he has the ability to fight a fan friendly fight. Walking down a bigger man isn’t easy, however, step into the ring with Bud and you’ll find it difficult to compete… The knock down was ruled a slip, Bud did exactly what he has always done… punished his opponent.

  • It wasn’t a knock down. He hit him then pushed him several times, and pushed him down!

  • Crawford got into much more of a firefight than he expected and was rocked several times by Kavaliauskas. He was not intimidated at all by Crawford. However, Crawford eventually concentrated on the body, wore his opponent down, and finally got the stoppage.

    Despite the victory, I saw too many occasions where he moved straight back and got tagged solidly. Kavaliauskas was hitting him both on the way in and on the way out and was quick with those punches. He fought much better than I expected him to.

    Crawford looked vulnerable at times but seemed to get better as the fight went on. I suspect he could be vulnerable in the early rounds in his future fights, but if his opponent doesn’t get to him early, he would be unstoppable in the later rounds. It does take him a few rounds to get warmed up and start letting loose with bombs.

    I would like to see him fight Porter next. That will be a real test of just how good Crawford is at welterweight. If he beats Porter convincingly, I’ll be really impressed. Tonight, he just took care of business and did what was expected of him, but had a hard time getting the job done.

  • TC show why those PBC guys are ducking him . Not happy with how the PBC is trying monopolize boxing.

  • Lopez will b the next badd ass of boxing and he might never hit LOMA with the right hand that he hit COMMEY but he could hit him with something else

  • Kavaliauskas was on the way out after the 1st knockdown in round 7. And Crawford carried him in the 8th round by switching to conventional stance. Then into the 9th round it was two knockdowns and it was over. Crawford should go up to 154 next to fight for the WBO belt with the Golden Boy guy, Teixeira (if Crawford wants to go for being a 4 division WBO champion). Beating Teixeira and fighting Tim Tszyu afterwards is about as good as it would get for Crawford in 2020. No Danny/Mikey Garcia, no Spence in Nov or Dec 2020 (but there is a slim chance it may happen by then), no Thurman (unless he’s ready to work w/ Top Rank), no Pacquiao. maybe Vergil Ortiz Jr.. Top Rank and Golden boy will have to work to make Ortiz Jr vs Crawford, or Teixeira vs Crawford. If not work with Golden Boy to make fights, going to have to work with other promoters to make WBO title defenses:
    4 Segey Lipinets (Int-Cont) RUS
    6 Mikka Shonena (WBO Africa) NAM
    7 Custio Clayton (WBO International) CAN
    8 Mikael Zewski (NABO) CAN
    9 Michael McKinson (WBO Europe) UK
    10 Kudratillo Abdukakhorov UZB
    12 David Avesnayan RUS

  • Crawford is a throwback fighter like no other.. He likes to get in there and exchange.. Hes not afraid of getting hurt at all and it makes for real good exchanges and fights. He can be technical or brawl and he loves a good scrap. Anyone who doesn’t like crawford doesn’t like boxing. That was a GREAT fight!

  • Bud did what he was supposed to do, but “Mean Machine” took him 9 tough rounds. Imagine that’s Spence, Porter, Danny Garcia, Onetime Thurman, or even Pacquiao. When he fights any of them and can do the same we’ll know if he’s for real or not. Otherwise it’s just a padded record of bum-slaying, mostly at 140.

  • Some of you sound foolish! If this guy can do that to him imagine what Porter and Spence would do him? Let me enlighten you, he wouldn’t fight them the same way. That’s the beauty of Crawford he can adapt to any style and fight many different styles. He reminds me of Mayweather in that way once they figure you out it’s over! Bud just got that killer in him though opposed you Mayweather.

  • best non title fight that can be made for Crawford is against Taras Shelestyuk, 2011 world champion, 2012 bronze at the Olympics. They love to have Crawford clean out former top amateurs in the pros. If Crawford doesn’t face up to Shelestyuk, he missed his spot to clean out former Olympic medalists with winning streaks, which he did against Khan (silver), Diaz (Gold), Gamboa (Gold).

  • I have read the Comments below and some of you fail to realize that even though he got Rocked in the third round he Stopped a fighter that wasnt supposed to lose and can I add that other 147s are ducking him. Crawford showed he can get rocked and still fight ,he was still dangerous and if he would’ve started out south paw opposed to Orthadox,he’d wouldve ended the fight earlier. I say he will still beat Spence,Crawford was in Mean Machine face the whole fight didnt back up not once

    • Bitch plz! The fight was waved off to early giving Crawford a BS win again. The other champs would steam roll Crawford prob even KTFO him in 2!.

  • Actually Anthony J your comments about Loma are way off base!!! Walters over rated? HOW? Not only was he a fine P4P fighter, but he DESTROYED Nonito Donaire who at the time was considered a very real P4P #1,2,or 3 fighter. LOMA did what to Walters??? Made him say NO MAS!!! Rigo SMALL? Did you know LOMA did not want to fight him, because Loma thought he would hurt him to bad? It was RIGO who was P4P #1 at the time by just about every poll and every writer, he was calling out LOMA at every opportunity.And you know what? At fight time LOMA was only 2 or 3 pounds over RIGO. And LOMA made him say NO MAS!!! You also made a comment about him losing to a world champion in only his 2nd pro fight? If you saw the fight you would know that Salido hit him low in every round and if there was a ref in there that had two eyes he would have disqualified Salido. As it was in the 11th and 12 th round LOMA had the very EXPERIENCED champion looking for a place to get the hell out of the ring, had this fight went another 30 seconds LOMA would have K.O’d Salido. As for Russell another P4P fighter, LOMA made him look ordinary in their fight, LOMA was in his 3rd fight when he beat Rusell ,and won a world title, Russell could not do anything with LOMA. So in his 3rd pro fight, he wins a world title, something no one has ever done. Then he decides he needs more titles and goes up to lgt weight and decimates all the bigger stronger fighters there. And once again makes an undefeated fighter SOSA say No MAS. So tell me how many fighters that have boxed since the 1900’s that have won titles before their 4th fight and other titles before their 8th fight that you can tell everyone? How about it? Oh and how many fighters that you know can claim making 3 top P4P fighters QUIT, against a guy with 3-8 fights? And BTW, Linares who at one time was a P4P #1,2 or 3 fighter on everyone list, came into his fight with LOMA at least 20 lbs heavier than LOMA. I guess it’s not enough to completely make top P4P fighters quit or knock them out, and I guess his style which happens to be reeking havoc on everyone he fights, is also not enough. You do know if he keeps this up, there will be no one left for him to fight. Oh maybe then DelaHO’S ring MAGAZINE might have him rated just behind the PHONY CANELA.

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