Three-division world titleholder Terence “Bud” Crawford, one of boxing’s pound-for-pound best boxers in the world, won the award for best fighter at the 2018 ESPYS on Wednesday night, ESPN’s annual sports awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
Crawford won from a field that also included Top Rank stablemate and fellow three-division titleholder Vasilily Lomachenko, the pound-for-pound king and reigning lightweight world champion, and MMA fighters Rose Namajunas and Georges St-Pierre.
“It’s a long time overdue,” Crawford said. “I felt as if I should have won last year, but this year is a surprise and I’m glad to have it.”
The 30-year-old Crawford (33-0, 24 KOs), of Omaha, Nebraska, was the 2017 ESPN.com fighter of the year after retaining his junior welterweight belt against 2008 Olympic gold medalist Felix Diaz by 10th-round knockout in May followed by a devastating third-round knockout of Julius Indongo last August to become the undisputed junior welterweight world champion.
Crawford unified his two world title belts with Indongo’s two to become only the third fighter of the four-belt era to do so.
After that victory, Crawford vacated the four belts and moved up to the welterweight division, where he knocked out Jeff Horn in the ninth round on June 9 in Las Vegas to win a world title in his third weight class.
Crawford is slated to make his first welterweight title defense on Oct. 13 against an opponent to be determined.