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Terence Crawford impresses in dominant win over Ray Beltran

Terence Crawford was excellent again in front of a partisan crowd, beating Ray Beltran on HBO.

Chris Farina/Top Rank

In what appears to be Terence Crawford's swan song as a lightweight, the Omaha native was dominant in front of his home fans in winning the vacant RING Magazine championhip and retaining his WBO title, beating Ray Beltran handily on scores of 119-109, 119-109, and 120-108. BLH had it 119-109 for Crawford.

Crawford (25-0, 17 KO) wasn't sensational in the way that he was in June against Yuriorkis Gamboa, but he was the clearly superior fighter against Beltran (29-7-1, 17 KO), who fought as well as he could but was simply outgunned. Beltran managed to land some good, clean shots, but he couldn't dent Crawford, who showed his toughness and his chin against a true lightweight, and a strong one at that.

Crawford said this would indeed be his final fight at lightweight when speaking with HBO's Max Kellerman, and also declined to call out anyone.

Statistically, it was a one-sided fight for Crawford, as he landed 243 of 639 (38%) of his shots, compared to just 96 of 366 (26%) for Beltran, who was largely immobilized by Crawford's movement, both with his legs and his body. The jab contest was lopsided, as Crawford connect on 150 of 436 (34%), mostly coming from a southpaw stance. Beltran landed a paltry 23 of 162 (14%) of his jabs, and never was able to get a real beat on Crawford.

Did Crawford's win tonight make you think of him as a true elite fighter? Is he a pound-for-pound contender now as he targets the 140 pound division?

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