By Radio Rahim
Two junior welterweight world champions were crowned on Saturday night.
In an HBO televised main event, Viktor "Iceman" Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) captured the vacant WBC junior welterweight crown by knocking out heavily favored Lucas Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs) in the tenth round at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
And the across the street, in a Showtime televised headliner, Adrien “The Problem” Broner (31-2, 22 KOs) became a four division world champion by picking up the vacant WBA "regular" junior welterweight title by stopping ex-beltholder Khabib Allakhverdiev (19-2, 9 KOs) in the twelfth round at the U.S Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Postol was questioned about the possibility of facing Broner in a unification bout - if the Iceman is unable to secure a fight with WBO champion Terence Crawford.
The tough Ukrainian realizes the fight is not possible with the conflicting cable network associations. Postol is being handled by Top Rank and fights on HBO, while Broner is managed by Al Haymon and fights on a cluster of various networks that are under the Premier Boxing Champions umbrella.
Postol stated, more or less, the fight is unlikely because he plans, at the present, to remain fighting on HBO, and the network does no business with Haymon or PBC. Top Rank also has a pending $100 million lawsuit against Haymon.
“I don’t know what to say about Adrien right now, but I’m fighting on a fight network that I want to remain on right now,” Postol said.
