Terence Crawford Drops, Dominates Postol To Unify Titles

By Francisco Salazar

LAS VEGAS, Nev. - Terence Crawford was not fazed by all the pre-fight talk that Viktor Postol would be the first to give him his pro loss.

Instead, he did what was necessary to prove he is the best fighter at 140 pounds.

Crawford dropped Postol twice during the fight in route to a 12 round unanimous decision before an announced crowd of 7,027 at the MGM Grand.

Crawford improves to 29-0, 20 KOs, while Postol drops to 28-1, 12 KOs.

With the win, Crawford successfully defended his WBO World junior welterweight title, while adding Postol's WBC belt in the process.

While the pre-fight talk was dominated on whether Crawford-Postol should or should not have been on pay-per-view, much was spent on whether Las Vegas oddsmakers were not giving Postol enough credit as a worthy foe.

Postol was listed as a six to one underdog during fight week, which brought people, even Freddie Roach, to place bets on the Ukraine fighters.

But Crawford demonstrated why he is the legit and best fighter at 140 pounds. But it was not until after Crawford's customary late start.

After an even first four rounds, Crawford swung momentum in his direction in the fifth round. Within the first five seconds of the round, Crawford dropped Postol to one knee with a right hand to the head. Later in the round, Crawford dropped Postol again, this time with a more convincing right hand to the head.

Crawford controlled the tempo of the fight, switching from southpaw to conventional and vice-versa, keeping Postol at bay most of the time. Anytime Postol launches an attack, Crawford easily countered to the head and body.

Crawford knew he had the fight in the bag, so to speak. He would smile at Postol or would point to his chin, daring Postol to the throw a punch.

Near the end of the eleventh round, Postol was deducted a point by referee Tony Weeks for throwing and landing a punch behind Crawford's head. It was a mute point as Crawford won the fight handily on the scorecards, 118-107, 118-107, and 117-108.

"I just stuck to what I knew (tonight)," said Crawford after the fight. "I watched him and they said he had the best jab in the game. In the division. I proved (that) differently tonight."

"Everyone said that I kept running from him. We asked for the fight. We always wanted the fight."

With each passing fight, Crawford has demonstrated his worth as the next great American fighter and as one of the top fighters in boxing today.

Not to mention Crawford's fan base is increasing and fight fans from his hometown of Omaha travel well. Thousands were in attendance Saturday night and in his previous on February 27 inside The Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

But there is the case of Manny Pacquiao, who will be fighting at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. While Jessie Vargas is the likely contender to land the Pacquiao fight, there is an outside possibility Crawford may wind up facing Pacquiao across the ring that night.

While some wonder whether Crawford is the right match-up for Pacquiao, Crawford is open to fighting anybody.

"I'll let my coaches handle that. I am a fighter and I'll fight anybody."

In a battle of unbeaten fighters, Oscar Valdez knocked out Matias Rueda in the second round to become the WBO featherweight titleholder.

Valdez improves to 20-0, 18 KOs, while Rueda drops to 26-1, 23 KOs.

Both Valdez and Rueda were vying for the vacant WBO belt, a title that was vacated by Vasyl Lomachenko, who is now the WBO junior lightweight titleholder.

From the opening round, both fighters were on the attack, but it was Valdez who landed the cleaner and more effective punches. Valdez stunned Rueda on two occasions late in the first round.

As Rueda pressed the action, Valdez began to counter with hooks and crosses. Midway through the second round, Valdez dropped Rueda with a left hook to the body. Moments later, a barrage of punches from Valdez dropped Rueda to the canvas. Referee Russell Mora stopped the bout at 2:18.

"This has been a dream of mine since I was eight years old," said Valdez after the fight. "That's the beauty about this sport. If you work hard, your dreams come true. If the training works, the dreams come true."

Welterweight Jose Benavidez won a hard-fought 10 round decision over Francisco Santana. Most in attendance booed the decision.

Benavidez goes to 25-0, 16 KOs, while Santana drops to 24-5-1, 14 KOs.

It was all Benavidez during the first two rounds, utilizing his reach to beat Santana to the punch. By the third round, Santana began successfully walking Benavidez down, pinning him against the ropes and throwing an abundant amount of punches, a majority of which connected.

Benavidez seemed to get winded by the middle rounds, which allowed for Santana to dictate the pace.

Benavidez began to move around the ring more in the later rounds, countering when Santana from a distance. Both fighters had their moments in the final rounds, even though Santana looked tired by the end of the final round.

All three judges scored the bout in favor of Benavidez, 96-94, 98-92, and an unexplainable 100-90.

"I got through this tough test," said Benavidez after the fight. "He was tougher than I thought."

In the opening bout of the HBO Pay Per View broadcast, light heavyweight Oleksandr Gvozdyk survived a first round knockdown to knock out Tommy Karpency in the sixth round.

Gvozdyk improves to 11-0, 9 KOs, while Karpency drops to 26-6-1, 15 KOs.

With about a minute left in the opening round, a right cross from the southpaw Karpency dropped Gvozdyk to the canvas. Gvozdyk, who won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games, began to break Karpency down from the second round on, walking him down and connecting often to the head.

By the fifth round, a cut appeared on the bridge of Karpency's nose. One round later, Gvozdyk landed a right to the head, followed by a right to the stomach, dropping Karpency to the canvas. Referee  Kenny Bayless counted Karpency out at 2:21.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for krikya360.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing