ARLINGTON, Texas – Cody Crowley took another step Saturday night toward the type of meaningful welterweight fight he wants.

The Canadian southpaw dealt well with Josesito Lopez’s power during their 10-round, 147-pound bout and was the more active, accurate puncher. A convincing Crowley (21-0, 9 KOs) won a unanimous decision because judges Tim Cheatham (98-91), Glenn Feldman (98-91) and Steve Weisfeld (99-90) all scored their fight for him on the Errol Spence Jr.-Yordenis Ugas undercard at AT&T Stadium.

The 37-year-old Lopez lost for just the second time in his past seven bouts. Before Crowley beat him, Lopez (38-9, 21 KOs, 1 NC), of Riverside, California, hadn’t boxed in the 16 months since he stopped Francisco Santana in the 10th round on the Spence-Danny Garcia undercard in December 2020 at AT&T Stadium.

The 29-year-old Crowley, whose victory opened a four-fight Showtime Pay-Per-View telecast, won a second straight fight against an established welterweight. In his prior appearance, Crowley got up from a second-round knockdown and soundly beat Uzbekistan’s Kudratillo Abdukakhorov (18-1, 8 KOs) by unanimous decision December 11 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

On Saturday night, Lopez clearly needed a knockout in the final round to win. Crowley mostly controlled the action in those final three minutes, though, and cruised to a wide win on the scorecards.

Lopez landed a flush right hand with just over a minute remaining in the ninth round, but Crowley took it well.  

The older Lopez appeared tired for much of the eighth round, during which Crowley was again the aggressor. Lopez let his hands go toward the end of the eighth round, yet Crowley contested his pressure well.

Lopez went down a few seconds before the midway mark of the seventh round. He contended to Cole that he slipped once he reached his feet, but Cole counted it as a knockdown.

Nearly a minute later, Crowley connected with a left hand and followed up with a right hook that got Lopez’s attention.

Crowley controlled the action again in the sixth round with his jab and straight lefts. Lopez attacked Crowley’s body at times during that round, but he couldn’t keep Crowley from coming forward.

Lopez backed Crowley into the ropes early in the fifth round, but Crowley became the aggressor soon thereafter. Lopez attempted to go to Crowley’s body, but Crowley was effective with his straight left later in the fifth round.

Following two opening rounds that lacked sustained action, Crowley and Lopez traded hard punches as soon as the third round began.

Lopez backed Crowley into the ropes and unloaded head and body shots 45 seconds into the third round. Crowley landed a straight left to make Lopez back off of him during that sequence.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.