Terence Crawford defeats Shawn Porter by 10th-round TKO to retain welterweight title

LAS VEGAS — Terence Crawford jumped up and down in jubilation. Or maybe it was an exorcism. For years, he has been tormented by questions surrounding his résumé. No more.

Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) notched the biggest win of his career on Saturday at Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay, scoring a 10th-round TKO victory over Shawn Porter to retain his WBO welterweight title. But the title defense didn’t come easy — far from it.

Porter (31-4-1, 17 KOs) applied relentless pressure in a rugged, tit-for-tat battle before Crawford scored two knockdowns in Round 10, leading his father and trainer, Kenny Porter, to throw in the towel. The stoppage came at 1 minute, 21 seconds and marked the first time in Porter’s career that he was stopped.

The first knockdown resulted from a counter left cross to the face as Porter swung wildly. Moments later, a barrage of punches punctuated by a right hook sent the two-time champion to the canvas before Porter’s father jumped up in the corner to grab the ref’s attention 81 seconds into the round.

“His dad did the right thing by stopping it because I was coming with a vengeance,” said Crawford, who was ahead on all three scorecards at the time of the stoppage: 86-85, 87-84 and 86-85.

Porter, who was fighting for just the second time since a September 2019 loss to Errol Spence Jr., announced his retirement after the bout.

Crawford, at 34, has plenty more to fight for as he continues to push for the biggest fights out there. And none would be more meaningful than one with Spence, who sat ringside Saturday night.

Perhaps Spence’s presence is a prelude to an eventual meeting with Crawford, a fight that would determine the best welterweight in the world, once and for all.

“You see what I did compared to what he did,”…