Crawford Dominates Postol to Unify Half of the 140-Pound Titles

When Viktor Postol took out Lucas Matthysse last year and the fight with Terence Crawford was finalized, many within the sport of boxing predicted that the Ukrainian would pull off back-to-back upsets. In the main event of an HBO Pay-Per-View card from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, “Bud” made sure that wasn’t going to happen.

After a relatively slow start for the two junior welterweights, Crawford did what he always did: he figured out his adversary, cranked the throttle and never looked back. Once Crawford found his rhythm, Postol literally had no answers and was relegated to one-punch attacks. It also didn’t help matters that “The Iceman” was dropped twice in the fifth and had a point taken away in the 11th for repeated rabbit punches.

Crawford was sensational as he countered the typically aggressive Postol throughout. He opened the fifth with a flash knockdown when he cupped Postol with a loopy overhand right. But when the Omaha native drilled the Ukrainian with a laser of a counter left hook about two minutes later, Postol’s legs instantly turned to gelatin. A follow-up flurry from Crawford sent him sprawling and his glove touched the canvas, creating a 10-7 round.

Postol (28-1, 12 KOs) was wobbled a few more times from counter left hooks, but the tough former world champion was able to stay upright until the end. But with Crawford dominating nearly every minute of every round in the second half of the fight, Postol needed a miracle that never materialized and the American wound up winning a lopsided unanimous decision.

Two of the judges favored Crawford (29-0, 20 KOs) with tallies of 118-107 while the third had it closer at 117-108, allowing to not only retain his WBO junior welterweight title, but add Postol’s WBC belt in the process.

In the co-feature, Oscar Valdez (21-0, 18 KOs) decimated Matias Rueda (26-1, 23 KOs) to capture the vacant WBO featherweight crown. Valdez, a two-time Olympian, hurt his foe in the first and then dropped him twice with body shots in the second, forcing a stoppage at 2:18 of the frame.

In other action, welterweight Jose Benavidez Jr. (24-0, 16 KOs) toppled Francisco Santana (24-4-1, 12 KOs) over 10 rounds to win a unanimous decision via tallies of 100-90, 96-94 and 98-92; 2012 Olympian Oleksandr Gvozdyk (11-0, 9 KOs) took out Tommy Karpency (26-6-1, 15 KOs) at 2:21 of the sixth after being dropped in the first; and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Ryota Murata (11-0, 8 KOs) destroyed George Tahdooahnippah (34-3-3, 24 KOs) in the first.