Monday 26 October 2015 10:13, UK
Terence Crawford retained his WBO light-welterweight title with a 10th round stoppage of Dierry Jean at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha on Saturday night.
The unbeaten Crawford (27-0-KO19) knocked down Jean in the first and ninth rounds and then used a flurry of punches to cause him to buckle into the ropes in the 10th, before referee Tony Weeks ended the fight.
The 28-year-old's impressive performance in the scheduled 12-round fight also set up a possible bout against Manny Pacquiao.
"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."
When asked over a potential bout between Crawford and Pacquiao, Top Rank CEO Bob Arum said: "It would be one hell of a fight. The next step is for Manny to review the tapes from tonight's fight, and we also have to wait for the result of November 7 [Timothy Bradley v Brandon Rios], then we'll regroup after that."
Crawford, the former WBO lightweight champion, is 5-0 in world title fights with three knockouts. It was Crawford's third title defence in his hometown.
The Haitian-born Jean (29-2-KO20), who fights out of Montreal, landed only a few good shots on Crawford, and that only seemed to motivate the champion even more.
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 an excellent combination.
At the end of the fourth, the dazed Jean walked all the way to Crawford's corner before a smiling Crawford pointed him the opposite direction.
A hard left followed by a flurry of punches nearly brought down Jean in the fifth, and when the round ended, Crawford jumped up and down in the middle of the ring and spun his fists in a circle as if he were upset he didn't finish off his overmatched opponent.
Jean landed a couple punches to the head in the eighth, and that only seemed to infuriate Crawford, who peppered the 33-year-old until the bell.
