Support was conditionally offered by the WBC despite its initial resistance. It came on the basis that the winner immediately committed to a mandatory title defense versus Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs). The ruling was made after Crawford, The Ring 147-pound champ and pound-for-pound king, enforced his WBO ‘Super Champion’ status. The designation permits its claimants to immediately challenge for a title in a separate weight division during the ordered mandatory period.

Round Two: Spence jabbing and puts a left hand behind it that lands. Body work from Spence on the inside. Crawford fires a combination but only one shot lands. Looping left from Spence and he's banging on Crawford's gloves. Long jab to the body from Crawford but Spence returns fire immediately. Crawford barely misses a hook but lands a lead right. crawford weight with a combination. It's heating up. Crawford with a combination and down goes Spence!!! Spence is up. and Crawford is on the attack! Big left hand rocks Spence as the round comes to a close!!!

Following a one-year layoff, Crawford returned in December 2022 with a sixth-round stoppage over David Avanesyan. Crawford’s record in world title bouts was now an impressive 17-0 (14 KOs). The win over Avanesyan set the stage for boxing’s biggest and best match: a showdown between Crawford and undefeated, unified WBC, WBA and IBF World Welterweight Champion, Errol Spence Jr.

For Bud, this is just another example of his pound-for-pound greatness. The Spence win adds an emphatic bullet point to a resume that already includes wins over Yuirorkis Gamboa, Jeff Horn, Kell Brook, Amir Khan and Shawn Porter.

Baez, known for his tremendous toughness, is coming into this fight with his back against the wall. In his last outing, he challenged the monstrous Emanuel Navarrete (36-1, 30 KOs) for his WBO world title, a fight where he got caught with a solid body blow. With nothing to lose, Baez sees this fight as a do-or-die situation.

"Usyk is very fit, he's got great feet and he threw a lot of punches. He was probably a bit more aggressive than Joshua anticipated. Look, tt was a tough defeat. He got beat by the better man on the night. It was always going to be difficult because Usyk's confidence will be sky high.

Round 7: Santiago’s speed advantage playing out here and Donaire has to shell up to defend against a sharp combination. Cut opens up over Santiago’s left eye after a clash of heads. Donaire sitting down on that jab, but he can’t follow up with much. Counter jab by Santiago. Two hard punches connect for Santiago. Good long jab from Santiago. He scores with an uppercut to Donaire’s body.

On fight night, in front of 12,107 fans, Spence broke Peterson down mentally and physically eventually forcing Peterson's trainer Barry Hunter to stop the fight a second into round 8. Peterson was dropped in round 5 from a left hand by Spence. Peterson beat the count and looked unsteady, surviving the round. Peterson took a lot of punishment, but managed to fire back some offence of his own before the round ended. Peterson's face looked swollen and his eyes were puffy from Spence's hard shots. Spence also worked the body from the opening bell. After round 6, Peterson knew he was behind on the scorecards and indicated to his trainer, who said he would give him a few more rounds. In the post-fight interviews, Spence said, "I want to thank Lamont. A lot guys turned down the fight, and he took like a real warrior, and I commend him for that. My coach came with a great game plan, and I just followed through with it. Keep my range, keep my composure." Spence admitted he would need to work on his defence a little. When interviewer Jim Gray asked Hunter about the stoppage, he replied, "It was really hard , but if you know Lamont, you know he was not going to give up. So I had to stop it. At the end of the day this is my son right here. And there's nothing more valuable than his well being. If it comes to him or winning, I pick him. I care about him." After the fight, Spence called out unified champion Keith Thurman, referring him to 'sometime'. At the time of stoppage, all three judges had their scorecards at 70-62 for Spence.

WBO officials were hesitant to sanction the billed unification bout, since it still recognizes Ring/lineal champion Jermell Charlo as the WBC champ. Houston’s Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KOs) has relinquished all four major sanctioning body titles, including the WBC where he is now ‘Champion in Recess.’

Crawford then moved up to junior welterweight where he became one of the division’s most decorated fighters. He beat Thomas Dulorme in six; for the vacant WBO title, thoroughly outpointed Viktor Postol; for the Ring Magazine championship and the WBC belt, and finally made history by becoming the undisputed champion at the expense of IBF and WBA titleholder Julius Indongo, who he knocked out in three rounds.

Many congratulations, Vadym! I’m happy that you enjoyed the fight and got the result you wanted. There does seem to be a very neat symmetry to tonight’s result. Tyson Fury beating Wladimir Klitschko and stealing his heavyweight world titles. Anthony Joshua then beating Klitschko, after Fury had vacated. And now Oleksandr Usyk beating Joshua in London to bring the belts back to Ukraine.