Lundy: Postol, Olusegun Both Better Than Terence Crawford

By Keith Idec

Hank Lundy considers two previous opponents, Viktor Postol and Ajose Olusegun, to be better boxers than Terence Crawford.

“I really think Viktor is the better technician, to tell you the truth,” Lundy said during a conference call. “With Crawford, he gets hit on both sides. He gets hit a lot.”

After they fight Saturday night, Lundy would like to see a Crawford face Postol (28-0, 12 KOs), who made a name for himself among American fight fans by knocking out favored power puncher Lucas Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs, 1 NC) in the 10th round of his last fight, October 3 in Carson, California. Crawford wants to box Postol, too.

“I would like to fight him,” Crawford said. “That’s a great matchup. I actually asked for the fight. I don’t know what happened with that fight. But he’s tall, he’s rangy, he likes to box. He would be a good opponent in the future, but I’m ready for whatever my manager and my promoters put in front of me.”

Ukraine’s Postol defeated Philadelphia’s Lundy by unanimous decision in March 2013 in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital city. Philadelphia’s Lundy (26-5-1, 13 KOs) contends he would’ve beaten Postol had they fought in the United States.

Postol won by scores of 116-113, 116-112 and 116-112. None of the three judges were from Ukraine.

“With Viktor Postol, I did good with defense,” Lundy said. “He got some shots in, but it wasn’t nothing hard. Basic stuff, like a jab. But I was able to slip, counter him, and push him backwards. Viktor Postol can’t fight going backwards. And I put a lot of pressure on him with body shots, you know, coming upstairs. And I was me. I dictated.”

Lundy also said a bout between Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs), the WBO super lightweight champion from Omaha, Nebraska, and St. Louis’ Dannie Williams (22-3, 18 KOs) “could be a toss-up.” Williams dropped Lundy in the first round of their March 2012 bout, but Lundy recovered and won a unanimous decision by large margins on all three scorecards (98-91, 97-92, 97-92).

Crawford didn’t entertain Lundy’s provocative claims.

“If he fought three guys that are better than me, then so be it,” Crawford said. “But I’m not worried about what he said about me, or who’s better than me or who’s not. Because at the end of the day, we’re still going to have to fight and he’s still going to have to prove that he’s better than me. That’s really the end of the story on that one.”

HBO will televise the Crawford-Lundy bout as the main event of a “World Championship Boxing” doubleheader Saturday from The Theater at Madison Square Garden. The telecast will start at 10 p.m. ET/PT with a 10-round lightweight fight that’ll pit Puerto Rico’s Felix Verdejo (19-0, 14 KOs) against Brazil’s William Silva (23-0, 14 KOs).

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.