IBF orders Terence Crawford to defend against mandatory challenger Sergey Lipinets; but will the unified champ choose to vacate?

Boxing moves fast these days and the sanctioning bodies move even faster. Less than 48 hours after scoring a scorching 3rd round KO win over Julius Indongo to unify all four major belts at 140 pounds, Terence Crawford was ordered to make his first mandatory defence; so reports ESPN.com

The IBF ordered the unbeaten Crawford to face Sergey Lipinets of Kazakhstan but living in Los Angeles. The 28 year old is unbeaten at 12-0 (10) and he KO’d a good fighter in Lenny Zappavigna to become the IBF mandatory challenger. Still, it’s likely not too many fight fans will be overly familiar with Lipinets, certainly not to the extent that they will get too excited over the prospect of seeing Crawford defend against him.

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Lennox Lewis on Mayweather vs McGregor: Is he going to throw a kick?

Heavyweight great Lennox Lewis, who occasionally works as a guest commentator now that his own boxing career has ended, is not looking forward to this Saturday’s big, heavily hyped Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor crossover fight. In fact, in speaking with BBC Sport, Lewis referred to the fight as “a farce.”

Lewis said he will not be travelling to Las Vegas to watch the fight “unless they pay me to commentate on it.” Lewis, however, did say there is some mystery to the fight – “everybody wants to know what’s going to happen,” he said.

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Vasyl Lomachenko vs Guillermo Rigondeaux close for December 9, to go out on ESPN

They are arguably the two most naturally talented boxers fighting today (although with his brilliant performance on Saturday night, Terence Crawford is ranked as number-one in the eyes of many fight fans) – and promoter Bob Arum wants to match them together in what he says would be an “historic” fight.

Vasyl Lomachenko Vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux – a fight that has been in the works, at least as a possibility, for some months; due in large part to the unbeaten Cuban’s campaign on social media – is reportedly very close to being made for December 9 in New York, with ESPN set to televise.

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Terence Crawford plans move to welterweight: There is only going to be one name

Terence Crawford just keeps getting better and better. The brand new unified, WBC/WBO/IBF/WBA super-lightweight ruler was expected to defeat Julius Indongo, but not too many people predicted a quick, brutal 3rd round KO win for him. Most had last night’s fight down as either a distance fight or at least one that would go into the later rounds.

Crawford knew though. He had gone on record, his team and himself, saying before the fight that he would score a KO, and that he did, with one of the best body punch finishes you’ll see all year. The scary part, though, is this – Crawford, at age 29, is not yet at his peak. How much better, or greater, can the two-weight champ become?

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60 years ago today: Another fighter having his pro debut met a guy named Floyd in a much derided “mismatch”

There will be no world title on the line on Saturday night when Conor McGregor, making his boxing pro debut, will climb into the ring to face huge betting favourite and common sense favourite, Floyd Mayweather Junior. However, there once was a fight, perhaps more derided and ridiculed than the upcoming bout, that saw a man make his pro debut AND challenge for a world title at the same time.

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Bryant Jennings returns to winning ways, wants shot at Joseph Parker

While British heavyweight Dillian Whyte used his under-card appearance and win on the Crawford-Indongo card as a showcase to call out WBC heavyweight ruler Deontay Wilder, Philadelphia’s Bryant Jennings used his under-card win, over Daniel Martz, as a way to call out reigning WBO champ Joseph Parker.

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Dillian Whyte’s body punches too much for Malcolm Tann; Whyte says they’d be too much for Deontay Wilder!

There was plenty of fine body punching on display in Nebraska last night, as Terence Crawford crushed Julius Indongo with a wicked body shot in the evening’s main event, and as heavyweight Dillian Whyte showed his body shot handiwork on the under-card.

Boxing his US debut, the British heavyweight was, as expected, too much for journeyman late replacement (for original foe Michael Grant) opponent Malcolm Tann. Whyte, beaten only by Anthony Joshua at pro level, stopped Tann in the 3rd round, sending him down a total of four times along the way. And after his easy yet quite impressive win, Whyte predicted how WBC heavyweight king Deontay Wilder “will fall after three or four rounds” if he agrees to face him any time soon.

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Results: Crawford stops Indongo in 3rd round KO

WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 Kos) got the better of IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Julius Indongo (22-1, 11 KOs) in beating him by a knockout in round 3 of their unification bout on ESPN and ESPN Deportes on Saturday night at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Crawford ended the fight with a body should in round 3. Indongo couldn’t get up off the canvas to bet the count. The fight was promptly stopped by referee Jack Reiss. The time of the stoppage came at 1:38 of the 3rd.

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Gvozdyk, Whyte, Jennings, Stevenson and Alvarado win – Results

In a showcase fight, unbeaten the NABF and NABO light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk (14-0, 12 KOs) defeated the capable Craig Baker (17-2, 13 KOs) by a 6th round knockout on the undercard of the Terence Crawford vs. Julius Indongo card on Saturday night at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The Gvozdyk vs. Baker fight was televised on ESPN and ESPN Deportes. Gvozdyk, 30, put Baker down on the canvas with a right hand in round 6. The fight was stopped after Baker got back to his feet and took some punishing blows from Gvozdyk.

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On this day in 2000: Naseem Hamed gave us his final thrilling victory

On this day 17 years ago, Britain’s Naseem Hamed, the hardest puncher in featherweight boxing history, scored his final thrilling, memorable ring victory. Facing former amateur standout Augie Sanchez in Mashantucket in a fight that went out on HBO, Hamed scored a brutal KO win in defence of his WBO crown.

The fight, after a relatively uneventful opening round (uneventful compared to the sheer street-fighting element that was to come) became a sensational slugfest, with a ton of leather thrown from both sides, trips to the canvas from both fighters that could so easily have been scored as legit knockdowns, blood and finally a savage KO. Indeed, the action that came thick and fast over four rounds was all but impossible to keep up with.

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