WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) may have had his standard slow start against Kell Brook (39-3, 27 KOs), but when he kicked it up another gear there was no way Brook could ever recover.
A massive right hand from southpaw had Brook stumbling towards the ropes. It was evident that the ropes had saved him from going down, so referee Tony Weeks scored it as a knockdown, but not before Crawford landed some more flush head shots. Brook beat the count, absorbed more punishment and collapsed against the ropes again, at which point Weeks intervened and stopped it. No need to see that get any worse. Brook said “what happened?” afterward and that tells you all you need to know.
Crawford came out in the orthodox stance and it was Brook who got off to a decent start and had success with a sharp jab that tagged “Bud” a few times, and that might have led to some swelling on his right eye. But once Crawford permanently switched to southpaw in round three, Brook stopped throwing his jab and that was the beginning of the end. They traded some good shots towards the end of the 3rd, but it was only a matter of time before Crawford would unleash hell on the former IBF champion.
Official result: Terence Crawford def. Kell Brook by TKO, 1:14 of round 4 to remain the WBO welterweight champion
We can only hope that Crawford gets big fights in 2021. Errol Spence, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Manny Pacquiao, he needs to be fighting at least one of those dudes next year. Brook was always a heavy underdog and while he came in physically fit and was not out of his depth in the first couple of rounds, this was always the likely outcome.
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