Postol: I don’t see myself as underdog against Terence Crawford

By Boxing News - 06/21/2016 - Comments

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By Chris Williams: WBC light welterweight champion Viktor Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) doesn’t see himself as the underdog for this unification fight next month against WBO 140lb champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs) on July 23 on HBO PPV at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 32-year-old Postol is totally confident he’ll be winning the fight, and he doesn’t care what Crawford’s fans think about the fight. He thinks he’s going to win the fight and give the heavily hyped Omaha, Nebraska native his first loss of his eight-year pro career. It’s not just Crawford’s fans that think he’s going to win.

Postol promoter Bob Arum seems to be leaning in the direction of Crawford winning the fight as well, because he’s saying that he’ll be the next “big thing in boxing” if he beats Postol.

Postol, 5’11”, has the chance to create a huge upset by beating the next “big thing in boxing,” as Arum puts it. I don’t know if it would be a big upset to the casual and hardcore boxing fans though, because they’re not as committed to Crawford as Arum is. Crawford is just a counter puncher that has been matched selectively against some of the fringe contenders in the 140lb division and against a small former featherweight champion in Yuriorkis Gamboa.

There’s nothing that Crawford has done yet to create the hype yet, unless you consider a win over Ricky Burns a big deal. I don’t. Postol will have a three inch height and reach advantage over the 5’8” Crawford. It’s going to be interesting to see if that reach helps Postol or not. Crawford likes to jab a lot, so we’ll probably see him using that as his main weapon to try and deal with Postol’s reach advantage.

“I do not consider myself an underdog in this fight. Terence Crawford’s fans might consider me as the underdog but that does not bother me,” said Postol. “I’m 100% confident in myself and in my victory on July 23rd and the reasons are simple. I work harder in training camp than my opponents because I have to. Because I want to. I have the best trainer working with me and his name his Freddie Roach.”

I wouldn’t go putting all the credit into Roach’s lap if I were Postol. He came to Roach a finished product, as far as I can tell. The only thing Roach has done is give Postol a trainer that is well known, and who has a busy and quite popular training facility at the Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles. California. I think the training facility and Roach’s name is more important than anything else.

I doubt Roach has given Postol many pearls of wisdom during the time he’s been his trainer. Postol likely would have gotten the same thing if not better if he was with a different trainer that wasn’t nearly as well-known as Roach.

“I do not feel that Viktor is an underdog going into this fight. Why should I?” said Roach. “His experience against blue chip opposition has been great preparation for his fight with Terence Crawford.”