If Crawford beats Lundy, unification versus Postol makes sense
Two weeks ago I penned a piece
ranking the world title unifications fights I want to see most. No. 5 on that list was Terence Crawford against Viktor Postol at junior welterweight.
It’s a good style clash: Both fighters are undefeated and neither has any other obvious or significant opponent in the division. So even though Postol, who impressively won his belt by 10th-round upset knockout of Lucas Matthysse in October on HBO, is not all that well known, it’s a fight I really like and hope to see. And I am not alone.
Recently, Vadim Kornilov, who manages Ukraine’s Postol, said the same thing.
“We want to fight him,” Kornilov said. “We are open to fighting Crawford in June.”
June just happens to be roughly the time frame when Crawford’s next fight is supposed to be, should he retain his 140-pound title for the second time when he faces “Hammerin’” Hank Lundy on Saturday night (HBO, 10 p.m. ET/PT) at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
Crawford, the 2014 fighter of the year and a former lightweight champion, is a massive favorite against Lundy, who traveled to Ukraine in 2013 and lost a competitive decision to Postol in a regional title bout.
So although Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) said he was focused on his assignment against Lundy (26-5-1, 13 KOs), he did admit that he also is intrigued by the possible fight with Postol (28-0, 12 KOs), a no-brainer to get behind if you’re HBO.
“I’d like to fight him. That’s a great matchup,” Crawford said. “I asked for the fight. I don’t know what happened. He’s tall, he’s rangy, he likes to box. He’d be a good opponent in the future, but I’m ready for whatever my managers and promoter put in front of me.”
Hopefully, they’ll put Postol in front of him.