Terence Crawford grew to become a four-weight world champion with a win over Israil Madrimov on Saturday, outpointing the Uzbek in Los Angeles.

Crawford entered the BMO Stadium as a three-weight champion, having reigned undisputed in two divisions, and he enhanced his already gorgeous legacy with a unanimous-decision win, claiming the WBA super-welterweight title.

Most of the rounds have been intently contested, however the American’s expertise advised within the later frames, securing him scorecards of 116-112, 115-113, 115-113.

With the victory, the 36-year-old stayed unbeaten at 41-0 (31 knockouts), whereas handing Madrimov his first skilled loss (10-1-1, 7 KOs).

Madrimov, 29, had collected the WBA title with a stoppage of Magomed Kurbanov in March. In the meantime, Crawford’s final struggle was a stunning dismantling of Errol Spence Jr final July – a efficiency that noticed “Bud” grow to be undisputed at welterweight.

After Saturday’s most important occasion, Madrimov mentioned he felt he had completed sufficient to win, whereas the Uzbek’s promoter Eddie Hearn known as the struggle a “waste of time”, bemoaning a scarcity of “respect from the judges”.

However whereas Madrimov competed impressively, particularly contemplating his relative lack of professional expertise, Crawford’s capacity to extend his output and discover the goal within the later phases of the struggle proved decisive.

After the bout, Crawford was requested a couple of potential super-fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, to which he mentioned: “If the cash’s proper, we received a struggle, however on the identical time, he’s received a struggle that he’s centered on. I’m gonna calm down, get pleasure from this win.

“[That fight] shouldn’t be so essential to me. It’s simply one other milestone to greatness, I suppose. And financially…”

Previous to changing into undisputed at welterweight, Crawford was undisputed at super-lightweight and held a world title at light-weight. Saturday (3 August) noticed him transfer as much as a career-highest weight at 154lb, and one other upwards transfer to fulfill Canelo may show troublesome.

Nonetheless, Crawford performed down that concept, saying: “[I’m] under no circumstances [worried about the weight], as a result of I’m fairly certain he may struggle at 160lb.”

Mexican Canelo, 34, is scheduled to defend the unified super-middleweight titles in opposition to Edgar Berlanga in September.

Reflecting on his conflict with Madrimov, Crawford mentioned: “Israil was a troublesome competitor. I knew he was gonna be robust, I knew all about him once I went to Uzbekistan.

“He’s actually robust, he’s sturdy, he took quite a lot of good photographs. He received me to spherical 12. He had quick ft, good rhythm upstairs, and he was robust. And he was ready to counter me, identical to I used to be making an attempt to counter him.

“He wasn’t throwing wild photographs like I used to be wanting him to do. I figured it out from the get-go, however I used to be being affected person. I didn’t wanna rush in with something; that’s how I received caught a few instances, making an attempt to eat too quickly.”

The southpaw had received 11 straight fights by way of knockout earlier than dealing with Madrimov, having final been taken to the judges’ scorecards in 2016.