WBO welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (34-0, 25 KOs) proved that he had the bite to go along with his prefight bark, scoring an impressive twelfth round TKO over previously unbeaten Jose Benavidez Jr (27-1, 18 KOs) on Saturday night at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

The fight was close in the early stages with not much to separate the two but it was only a matter of time before Crawford started to up the pressure that would eventually sink Benavidez.

Crawford was cruising to a unanimous decision win before deciding that he wanted a bandstand finish, doing so courtesy of an uppercut which dropped Benavidez in the contest final stanza before a follow-up barrage made sure of the result as the fight was stopped with the time at 2:42.

“We knew that he wanted to get in my head and make it a firefight,” Crawford said. “I saw him in his corner taking deep breaths and knew he was done.”

Photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank