By Keith Idec
The most significant win of Viktor Postol’s professional boxing career didn’t impress Terence Crawford.
“Not at all, because I picked him to do that,” Crawford said regarding Postol’s 10th-round knockout of Lucas Matthysse on October 3 in Carson, California. “Matthysse has problems with people that don’t stand in front of him. And every time he stepped up in competition, he lost, except when he fought Lamont Peterson [a third-round technical knockout].
“So I wasn’t surprised with the performance he put up. I was more surprised that he quit. I was like, ‘Wow! You go to war with Provodnikov, but you quit against Postol?’ That was backwards. I believe he was more frustrated than anything.”
Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) was beating Argentina’s Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs) rather easily in their scheduled 12-round bout before Matthysse declined to get up and continue following a knockdown nine months ago at StubHub Center. That convincing victory led to the Ukrainian champion’s 140-pound title unification fight Saturday night against Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs), of Omaha, Nebraska.
Though Crawford wasn’t overwhelmed by Postol’s defeat of Matthysse, he knows he’ll encounter a capable opponent who’ll challenge him in an HBO Pay-Per-View main event at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT; $59.99 in HD; $54.95 in SD).
“He’s been avoided for a reason,” said Crawford, about a 6-1 favorite over Postol. “A lot of people have rejected fighting him, and it’s for a reason. But I look at it like we’re two humans, trying to go after the same thing.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
