By Jaime Ortega: A few boxing fans have called Viktor Postol versus Terrence Crawford the fight of the year and the best fight currently lining the 140 division. Some even claim that the winner of the two should be crowned the best pound for pound, which in essence seems utterly ridiculous –neither claim holds truth –so rest assure the winner of Sergey Kovalev versus Andre Ward will be crowned best pound for pound boxer in the world.
By Jeff Aranow: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is hoping for success on Saturday night for his Terence Crawford vs. Viktor Postol card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arum’s major problem is that the Crawford-Postol fight is on HBO pay-per-view, and unfortunately neither of these guys is PPV worthy fighters.
Crawford, 28, is from a Omaha, Nebraska, a small town with a population of only 600,000. Postol is from Ukraine. The Crawford vs. Postol fight is going for $49.99 on PPV in the U.S, and that’s a lot of money to spend for a fight that really should be either on regular HBO or better yet on free television on one of the free network channels.
The reaction on the various internet boxing forums from fans about whether they will be purchasing the Crawford-Postol card on PPV has been largely negative.
By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum must be positively gleeful right now with the tickets almost sold out for his Terence Crawford vs. Viktor Postol fight card this Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Arena has been retrofitted to seat 9,000 for the fight, and of the total, only 1,500 tickets are remaining. Arum believes that this success will carry over to the pay-per-view sales on HBO. I’m not sure that I agree with that, but that’s what 84-year-old Arum seems to think.
By Gerardo Granados: This Saturday on July 23 at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada, light welter WBC titlist Victor Postol and WBO titlist Terence Crawford will not only try to unify, but also the winner will get the prestigious Ring Magazine light welterweight Championship belt.
Currently the light welterweight Ring Magazine belt is vacant, and according to the Ring Magazine rules to fulfill the vacancies, when the ranked number one (Postol) and number two (Crawford) fight each other the winner can be awarded the Championship belt.
So, this Saturday we the fight fans will have the chance to know the name of the fighter who will continue a large boxing tradition, adding his name to an exclusive list of previous champions: Duilio Loi, Eddie Perkins, Carlos Hernandez, Sandro Lopopolo, Takeshi Fuji, Nicolino Locche, Alfonso Frazer, Antonio Cervantes, Wilfred Benitez, Aaron Pryor, Kostya Tszyu, Ricky Hatton, Manny Pacquiao and Danny Garcia.
By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach believes his fighter WBC light welterweight champion Viktor Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) is better than WBO 140lb champion Terence Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs), and he sees the 5’11” Ukrainian beating him on Saturday night.
Roach says he saw the 28-year-old Crawford coming out of the sauna this week, and he thinks he could be battling with the weight to get down to the 140lb limit for the fight. This could play into Postol’s hands if Crawford is weakened from losing weight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWzs7S8HVbA
By Chris Williams: WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs) will be giving away three inches in height and reach to the 5’11” WBC 140lb champion Victor Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) this Saturday night in their fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are some boxing fans and writers who believe that the taller 32-year-old Postol will be able to do to Crawford the same thing he’s done his entire career by keeping the fight on the outside. Crawford doesn’t agree with those people. He thinks he’s going to be able to beat Postol with his own jab despite not having the same reach as him.
By Chris Williams: Former WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov thinks WBC 140lb champion Viktor Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) has a real chance of beating the favorite WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs) in their fight this Saturday night on HBO pay-per-view at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Provodnikov thinks the oddsmakers don’t know what they’re doing in picking Crawford over Postol, because they’ve never put on a pair of gloves before and they don’t know what Postol is capable of doing.
“This is just a statistic. These people never wear the gloves and never get inside the ring, Anything can happen,” said Provodnikov to IFL TV about the oddsmakers making Crawford the favorite over Postol.
By Chris Williams: WBC light welterweight champion Viktor Postol’s trainer Freddie Roach says Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is hoping that his fighter unbeaten WBO 140lb champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs) defeats Postol in their fight this Saturday night on July 23 on HBO pay-per-view, because he needs him to win in order to turn him into a PPV attraction. Arum thinks that Crawford can become Top Rank’s next PPV fighter. For that to have any chance of taking place, Crawford will need to defeat the unbeaten 32-year-old Postol in their fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“The main thing is he has the height advantage and the reach advantage, and he needs to use that,” said Roach about Postol to Fighthype. “He does have good power in his right hand. I think people underestimate the power in his right hand. He does have knockout power. The thing is he won’t use his right hand until he knows he has you in the right distance and the right timing. He’s very good at that. He’s patient, he takes his time. He’s a very intelligent fighter. That’s why I like him so much. He doesn’t just go out there and try to get lucky He’s thinking all the time,” said Roach.
By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum thinks that WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs) could emerge as a pay-per-view star if he beats WBC 140lb champion Victor Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) in their unification fight this month on July 23 on HBO pay-per-view at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Arum wants to help hurry that pace of Crawford becoming a PPV star by matching him immediately with his fighter former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao on October 29 or November 5. Arum is hoping that Crawford can get the fight against Pacquiao. However, supposedly the decision is up to Pacquiao for the final say so in who he’ll be fighting.
Arum says that WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia and WBO 147lb champion Jessie Vargas are also in the mix for the Pacquiao fight. Arum promotes Vargas, so that means that there’s a very good chance that Pacquiao will be fighting one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters next unless he decides he wants nothing to do with any of those fighters.
By Chris Williams: WBC light welterweight champion Viktor Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) respects his opponent WBO 140lb champion Terence Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs), and he sees him as a very good fighter in the division. However, Postol doesn’t rate the 28-year-old Crawford as high as his last opponent Lucas Matthysse.
Postol thinks Matthysse is a higher level fighter than what he’s seen of Crawford in his fights. Postol, 5’11”, stopped Matthysse in the 10th round last October at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Postol and Crawford will be fighting this month in 11 days from now on July 23 on HBO pay-per-view at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Their promoter Bob Arum believes the winner of the Crawford-Postol fight will be the top fighter in the 140lb division. I don’t know if it’s something to brag about that the winner of the fight Crawford vs. Postol fight being the best fighter in the division.