Roach Not Concerned With Crawford's Switch Hitting

By Steve Kim

As Freddie Roach - who trains WBC junior welterweight belt-holder, Viktor Postol - sizes up WBO champion, Terence Crawford, he understands that the native of Omaha is one of the craftier and versatile boxers in the sport but isn't anything he hasn't seen before.

The two champions will collide in an HBO Pay-Per-View main event on Saturday from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

"The thing is (Crawford) is a very good boxer,"conceded Roach, who then added with a chuckle,"but the thing about changing from southpaw to righty, it's something I've seen my whole life. He's not the first guy in the world to do it, actually."

For this camp along with lightweight prospect Jose Ramirez, lefties such as Michael Farenas were brought in as sparring partners for Postol.

"I do have more southpaws than righties at this point,"said Roach, a few weeks back at the Wild Card Boxing Club."Whatever (Crawford) brings we'll be ready for it.''

Roach believes that his boxers size and length, will trouble Crawford. Listed at 5'11, he's a few inches taller than Crawford.

"His size is good, we have a reach advantage, yes.  Crawford's a little bit faster with his footwork than we are but that can be overcome by controlling the footwork,"said the noted trainer.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.