Terence Crawford vs Egidijus Kavaliauskas

WBO World welterweight champion Terence Crawford made the third successful defence of his title against California-based Lithuanian Egidijus Kavaliauskas at Madison Square Garden on a card including Teofimo Lopez's title-winning effort against IBF lightweight titleholder Richard Commey.

Kavaliauskas gave a good account of himself in the early going and appeared to score a third-round knockdown, although referee Ricky Gonzalez ruled it a slip.

From this point onwards, Crawford added some spite to his punches and pulled away from his challenger. Kavaliauskas never stopped trying and proved himself a worthy challenger, but he was up against a far superior boxer and it showed in the 7th round when he was dropped to his knees with a chopping overhand right. Kavaliauskas got straight back up but the writing was on the wall.

The champion battered his challenger throughout the 8th round and in the 9th, dropped Kavaliauskas twice to force referee Gonzalez to call a halt at 0:44 of the round.