by David P. Greisman

Hank Lundy trash-talked Terence Crawford repeatedly before their fight and then did his best to try to back up his words once their bout began. Crawford worked to shut down Lundy, however, then shut him up with a fifth-round technical knockout.

Lundy’s hand speed and unorthodox offense gave Crawford trouble in the first round. His punches were coming from different angles and at different moments than Crawford was used to seeing. That allowed Lundy to be able to catch Crawford with a lead right hand and then a left in one sequence, plus a left hand that came at the tail end of several other missed punches in another sequence.

“Lundy came out strong. He had good timing and good rhythm. I was surprised he came out so well,” Crawford said afterward, according to promoter Top Rank. “It took me awhile to figure out his timing and rhythm.”

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Crawford took the minute break between rounds to reconsider his approach. The adjustment worked. In the second round, Crawford — who as has become common turned southpaw nearly from the outset of the fight — established distance with his jab and did a better job of moving away when Lundy tried to come forward. Lundy couldn’t close the distance, and Crawford layered on another adjustment in the third.

Two jabs came out in the opening seconds of the third, and Crawford followed with a straight left. The left also landed as a counter as Lundy came in.

Then came Lundy’s turn to adjust. In the fourth, he went southpaw as well. That round also brought a cut above Lundy’s right eye. It wasn’t immediately clear from ringside whether the wound came from a punch or a head butt; both fighters had clashed heads at least twice in the preceding round.

That wouldn’t be the worst damage Lundy would take.

Lundy started the fifth off well by landing a couple punches on Crawford. But then Crawford sent out two jabs and followed with a left hand that hurt Lundy. Lundy tried to fight back with a left, only to take a left from Crawford and a right to the body. Lundy responded once more, only to take several shots from Crawford that put him down on the canvas.

Lundy rose at the count of seven on unsteady legs. Crawford closed in and closed the show, pouring forth punches while Lundy was in the corner until the referee jumped in. The end came 2 minutes and 9 seconds into the round.

“He caught me with a good shot, hit me on the top of the head and knocked my equilibrium off,” Lundy said afterward. “I couldn’t recover.”

A promotion that had gone from a heated back-and-forth outside the ring to a battle inside the ring ended with Crawford saying he respected Lundy — but that he had also sent a message.

“Lundy and I have been going back and forth on Twitter for over a year. I just wanted to shut him up at last,” he said.

Crawford was highly accurate with his power shots, going 49 of 84 on the night, according to CompuBox, a 58 percent connect rate. He was 40 of 163 with jabs (25 percent) for a total of 89 landed punches out of 247 thrown (36 percent).

Lundy was 31 of 85 with power shots (36 percent) and 16 of 126 with jabs (13 percent) for a total of 47 landed out of 211 thrown (22 percent).

This was the second successful defense of Crawford’s junior welterweight world title. He’d picked up a belt at 135 back in 2014, defending it twice before moving up to 140. Crawford won a vacant title over Thomas Dulorme in April 2015, then beat Dierry Jean in October. All three of Crawford’s recent wins at junior welterweight have come by technical knockout.

“I told everyone I got power in both hands, and [with] the boxing ability that I have, it’s going to take me a long way in this game,” Crawford said.

He’s now 28-0 with 20 KOs and remains, in the eyes of many, one of the best boxers in the sport — even if he’s still yet to clash with any of the other elite fighters in his division. That’s not for a lack of desire on his part, he said.

“I never duck anyone and I’ll fight anybody,” Crawford said. “My manager will make the fights happen, and I will train and fight.”

Lundy has now lost three of his last four. He dropped a split decision to Dulorme in December 2014, a cut-shortened five-round technical decision to Mauricio Herrera last July, and won a fifth-round technical knockout over the lower-level Carlos Velasquez this past October. He is now 26-6-1 with 13 KOs.

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com