Terence Crawford made boxing history on Saturday night with a unanimous-decision triumph over Canelo Alvarez to become the first three-weight undisputed champion in the modern era.
The 37-year-old outpointed defending champion Canelo in front of a 70,000-strong crowd at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas to clinch the super-middleweight world title.
Crawford, competing two divisions above his previous maximum, scored 116-112 and 115-113 twice in a slick and assured performance.
But there was a surprising twist in the final stats, with Canelo’s punch accuracy 1 per cent greater than his rival, at 38 per cent to 37 per cent for the victorious Crawford.
The stats overall however largely favoured the American, who landed 115 of 534 total punches and 70 of 208 power punches, with Canelo landing just 99 of 338 total punches in comparison, per Compubox.
The Mexican landed 83 of 260 power punches, holding the edge in terms of power punches connected at 83 to 70.
But Crawford’s power accuracy was significantly higher, at 56 per cent to Canelo’s 49 per cent.
And Crawford had the advantage in jabs connected with 45 of 326 compared to just 16 of 78 for Canelo – although Canelo made them count, with a connection rate of 20.5 per cent compared to Crawford’s 13.8 per cent.
The new three-weight undisputed king consistently had the upper hand, with Canelo only landing 32 per cent of his power punches compared to 46 per cent in his previous 12 flights, according to Compubox.
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