Watch highlights of WBO and WBC junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford’s brutal finish of John Molina.
Terence Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs) was in no danger of losing his WBO and WBC 140 lbs belts to John Molina (29-7, 23 KOs), who came in 4 pounds overweight and thus made this a non-title affair. The fight itself was deemed on paper to be a Crawford rout, and in front a raucous hometown crowd in Omaha, Nebraska, “Bud” delivered a beatdown.
The smooth skill of Crawford was on full display, and Molina was rendered completely ineffective. It was only a matter of when, not if, Crawford would get the stoppage, and the answer was the 8th round. Crawford just annihilated Molina with body shots and picture-perfect combinations in the corner, and Molina crumpled to the canvas. The referee didn’t even require a count.
Now that this stay-busy fight is out of the way — Crawford wanted to fight 3 times this year, and the capable but overmatched Molina was chosen for one of HBO’s available fight dates — fans will once again be keeping a close eye on whether or not Top Rank is vaguely interested in setting up Crawford to fight Manny Pacquiao in 2017. This factors in that Crawford has never fought at 147 before, and that Pacquiao’s manager said Terence’s style didn’t suit Manny. Alternatively, they just match up Crawford against the best competition at 140, and we can keep watching him dominate in impressive fashion.
You can watch highlights of the fight at the top of the page. Also on this card was a co-main event between lightweights Ray Beltran (31-7-1-1 NC, 19 KOs) and Mason Menard (32-2, 24 KOs), with Beltran, a previously vanquished Crawford foe, wrecking Louisiana’s Menard in round 7.