Unheralded Julius Indongo, a 7-1 underdog, came from nowhere to rip the IBF junior welterweight title from Eduard Troyanovsky in eye-opening fashion by scoring a first-round knockout in the defending champion's homeland of Russia in December 2016.

Indongo had been due to defend his title against mandatory challenger Sergey Lipinets. However, a unification with WBA titlist Ricky Burns took precedence. And Indongo did it again, upsetting Burns by a 12-round unanimous decision in April 2017 in Scotland.

Meanwhile, rising star Terence Crawford had cleaned up at 135 pounds in 2014 before making his way up to 140, at which he had been just as dominant. He picked up the vacant WBO title against Thomas Dulorme (TKO 6).

After two defenses, he scored a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision over undefeated WBC ruler Viktor Postol and also became Ring champion. The American made two more defenses, against John Molina Jr. (TKO 8) and Olympic gold medalist Felix Diaz (RTD 10).

After Crawford (31-0, 22 knockouts) had beaten Diaz, overtures were made to Indongo (22-0, 11 KOs) to decide who the undisputed king of the junior welterweight division was.

Indongo trained at home in Namibia at the gym of his manager-trainer, Nestor Tobias, in Windhoek, where he sparred with former WBA lightweight titlist Paulus Moses, Mikka Shonena and Jeremia Nakathila.

Team Indongo had to endure an arduous journey to reach Nebraska for the fight with Crawford.

"It was a long journey that took us four, five days," Indongo told The Ring. "We travelled from Windhoek to Frankfurt and on to Amsterdam for a day and stayed there due to connecting flights.

"[We] then departed to the USA on a 15-hour flight and spent three, four hours in USA airport before we took a domestic flight. Just sat waiting for the next flight."

The 34-year-old southpaw enjoyed a week of training and acclimatizing at Freddie Roach's famed Wild Card in Los Angeles before arriving in Lincoln the week of the fight.

"It was a very difficult fight for us against one of the best boxers in the world, but we were confident, and we prepared very good," Tobias said. "Every moment of this trip was just great, and I spent a lot of my time studying Crawford, how to beat him, and that added to my boxing experience. Crawford is a very technical and very strong boxer."

Both fighters were cordial at the press conference. However, the next day tensions were high at the weigh-in. Indongo came in at 139 pounds, while Crawford tipped the scales bang on the division limit of 140 pounds. Then both fighters faced off for what felt like an age only to be separated by Top Rank Vice President Carl Moretti.

Indongo, who on this occasion was an 8-1 underdog, returned to his hotel and remained calm and focused on what was about to unfold.

On fight night, the arena was close to capacity with 12,121 turning up to support Crawford. Loud chants in favor of the hometown hero could be heard around the arena. And the spectators received what they paid for.

Crawford caught Indongo with a straight left a minute into the fight that got the African fighter's attention and set the tone.

The first big moment came when Crawford landed a right hand to the body that hurt and dropped Indongo with less than a minute to go in Round 2. He made it to his feet and continued after referee Jack Reiss' count.

Although Indongo made it out of the second round, it was the beginning of the end. The fighters were exchanging punches when Crawford landed a debilitating two-punch combination to Indongo's midsection, which left him flat on his back and clearly in pain. He was counted out at 1:38 of the third round.

Crawford connected 26 of his 75 punches thrown (35 percent), while Indongo landed 13 of 74 (18 percent), according to CompuBox.

Eight years later, Indongo still recognizes Crawford's special talent and believes his greatest moment is just around the corner.

"Terence does hit hard and is more skillful. That's why he's a master of his generation," Indongo said. "Terence makes you forget about your boxing plans. That's the honest truth. Every opponent he fought and defeated can declare. And I know Canelo is going to experience it."

While it didn't go their way, Tobias appreciated the opportunity for his boxer to fight on the biggest stage.

"We lost that fight, but we will always be part of Crawford's history," Tobias said. "We learnt a lot during this event, as it put Namibia on the world map."

Indongo was never the same, winning just two of his last 11 fights before retiring in January 2024.

All the while, Crawford's star has continued to rise. He moved up to welterweight and quickly became WBO champion against Jeff Horn (TKO 9). He made seven defenses, notably stopping Amir Khan (TKO 6) and Shawn Porter (TKO 10), and iced David Avanesyan (KO 6) on another big night in Nebraska.

Then, after years of circling each other, Crawford proved he was the best 147-pounder on the planet when he dominated Errol Spence (TKO 9) to become Ring and undisputed 147-pound champion. He has since won a world title in a fourth weight class by beating Israil Madrimov (UD 12) for the WBA junior middleweight title.

And in two weeks, he'll dare to be great when he jumps two weight classes to face Ring and undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.