Arum: Crawford-Postol Has Chance To Be 'Fight of The Year'

By Ryan Burton

July 23rd is the date for the biggest fight that can be made in the super lightweight division.  WBO champion Terence Crawford and WBC champion Viktor Postol will square off at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada in an unification bout that will be distributed by HBO pay-per-view. 

On the pay-per-view undercard, newly crowned WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez will face Dominik Britsch, unbeaten featherweights Oscar Valdez and Matias Rueda will battle for the vacant WBO featherweight title and Jose Benavidez Jr. will square off against Francisco Santana in a 10 round welterweight scrap.

Crawford has been on a roll, winning his past three fights by knockout. The Omaha, Nebraska native rose to stardom when he took a fight against Breidis Prescott in 2013 on short notice in what was his HBO debut.  The 28-year-old went on to capture his first world title a year later when he traveled to Scotland and defeated Ricky Burns in his backyard to capture the WBO lightweight title with a dominant decision victory.

Postol defeated Selcuk Aydin with a wicked one punch knockout on May 17th, 2014 to become the WBC mandatory challenger for then champion Danny Garcia. He was in limbo for over a year before the Philadelphia native decided to vacate the title instead of face the Ukranian.  The WBC then ordered Postol to face Argentine knockout artist Lucas Matthysse for the vacant title.  Postol entered the fight as as a big underdog and stopped in a 10 rounds last October. Matthysse suffered an injury to his orbital bone from one of Postol's punches and hasn't fought since.

Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum, who's company Top Rank promotes both fighters, feels the fight is very close to a 50-50 fight and that Postol will be the stiffest challenge of Crawford's career.

"It is such a competitive fight with Terence Crawford and Viktor Postol. It has a chance to be Fight of the Year. These are two really good pros. A lot of people are talking about Crawford being the best American fighter now. Postol shocks everybody. He goes into every fight as an underdog and then he wins and he wins by knockout like knocking out Matthysse and knocking out the Turkish guy (Aydin) before that. He is undefeated.  They each have the same record which is amazing, 28-0. Both of them have that record. I look for a really great fight. Certainly it is Terence's toughest fight to date," Arum stated.

The 5'11" Postol always has a significant height advantage over his opponents.  Arum believes that the height and reach of the 32-year-old Ukrainian will present unique problems that Crawford hasn't had to overcome in the past but those advantages could be negated by the American's uncanny ability to adjust in the ring and conquer his opponents.

"Postol is much bigger than the traditional 140 pounder. As a matter of fact, he towers over his opponents. That is going to be an advantage.  A big guy always has an advantage.  However Terence has been coming on with unbelievable displays of skill, changing direction in the middle of a round, you know he just has excited me. If he can master Postol I think the sky will be the limit for Terence," Arum told BoxingScene.com.

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