By Dan Ambrose: #1 WBC Viktor Postol (27-0, 11 KOs) will be facing #2 WBC Lucas Matthysse (37-3, 34 KOs) in a battle for the vacant WBC light welterweight title this Saturday on October 3rd on HBO from the StubHub Center, in Carson, California.
This is the title that was recently stripped from Danny Garcia for him failing to defend the title for over a year. Garcia had been busy fighting catch-weight fights against Rod Salka and Lamont Peterson after having a bad experience defending his WBC title against Mauricio Herrera in March 2014.
Start time: 10:15 p.m. ET/7:15 p.m. PT.
Where to watch: HBO
Location of fight: Stubhub Center, Carson, California
Postol, 31, is trained by Freddie Roach, and he’s coming into this fight without almost no experience at all against world level competition. The closest that the Ukrainian Postol has come to facing world level competition is in a fight against Henry Lundy, and he’s more of a fringe contender than a true world class fighter.
The rest of the fighters that Postol has fought have been largely unknown 2nd and 3rd tier fighters of marginal talent. In his last six fights, Postol has beaten the following opposition: Jake Giuriceo, Selcuk Aydin, Behzod Nabiev, Ignacio Mendoza, Bahrom Payozov and Henry Lundy.
If Roach was thinking clearly, he’d have Postol test himself first against an actual world class fighter at 140 like Ruslan Provodnikov or Lamont Peterson before having him face the 33-year-old Matthysse, because Postol is the equivalent of an amateur fighter stepping up to face a world class fighter in the pro ranks, and this could very well end badly for him.
One slight advantage that the 5’11” Postol has in this fight, besides his five inch height advantage, is that Matthysse, 5’6”, is coming off of a really tough fight against Provodnikov last April. Matthysse won the fight by a 12 round majority decision, but it was a really hard fight for him.
Matthysse was hurt several times by the big shots from Provodnikov, and he badly ran out of gas in the last half of the fight. Provodnikov came on strong in the last six rounds.
The only reason why Provodnikov didn’t get the win was because he was totally pummeled by Matthysse in the first six rounds. As bad as Matthysse looked in the last six rounds, Provodnikov looked far, far worse in the first half of the fight.
This is a classic match-up between a short fighter in Matthysse and a tall fighter in Postol. Matthysse will need get in range for him to be able to land any of his shots.
Roach has already said that Postol will stay in the center of the ring and his jab and long reach to keep Matthysse away all night long. Roach plans on having Postol move around the ring constantly to keep Matthysse from getting near enough to him to land anything.
In the co-feature bout, 35-year-old former two division world champion Humberto Soto (65-8-2, 35 KOs) will be facing unbeaten #11 WBC Antonio Orozco (22-0, 15 KOs) in a 10 round bout. Orozco, 27, is coming off of an unimpressive 10 round unanimous over Emmanuel Taylor last May in a fight that was very close.
Orozco looks like a decent contender, but if Soto has anything left in the tank at age 35, he beats him without too many problems.
The Postol-Matthysse and Soto-Orozco fight card will be televised live on HBO Boxing.
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