By Jackson Park | @jackson_park92
On the July 23, WBO titleholder Terence Crawford attempts to become a two-time Super lightweight world champion, when he fights WBC king, Viktor Postol. The two come head to head in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena for a thrilling unification bout.
In 2014, Nebraska’s Crawford won his first world title, after widely outpointing Scotland’s Ricky Burns at lightweight. From this performance on, the highly touted American grew in popularity and confidence.
The stylish boxer defended his lightweight title with an emphatic stoppage of Yuriorkis Gamboa, and a 12-round schooling of granite chinned Raymundo Beltran.
Crawford then moved up to 140 pounds and won the vacant WBO title with a sixth-round TKO of Thomas Dulorme and has since defended the belt twice.
His slick movement, punch selection and long reach prove tricky for all opponents. With four of his five last fights coming back way of knockout, it’s clear that Crawford is not lacking punch power.
Arguably the biggest upset of 2015 was Viktor Postol’s 10th-round knockout of legendary banger, Lucas Matthysse. With Postol starting as an underdog with all bookies, and the wide majority of boxing journalist picking a Matthysse stoppage, the Ukrainian’s impressive resolve and boxing ability came as a big surprise.
The 5’11” text-book style boxer, managed to establish his jab around the middle rounds and began frustrating Matthysse, who spent a lot of the night swinging and missing.
A then tired and puzzled Matthysse walked into a sharp straight right from Postol, which floored and finished the Argentinian.
With both Crawford and Postol entering the ring with identical undefeated records and equivalent world titles, this match is closer than most have it in my opinion.
The impressive professional pedigree and unorthodox style of the American against the Eastern European style of Postol, who holds a 3” height and a 3.5” reach advantage.
[playbuzz-item url=”//www.playbuzz.com/rbrboxing10/terence-crawford-vs-viktor-postol”]
