Last night at the MGM in Las Vegas, Terence Crawford became the unified WBO and WBC Junior Welterweight Champion with a huge win over Viktor Postol on HBO/PPV. Crawford, now 29-0, with 20 KO’s coasted in the fight, making easy work of the previously undefeated Postol who moves to 28-1. Although Crawford closed at -675 in the books, most fans and members of the press did not feel the fight was that big of a mismatch. Many people who know boxing were rushing to the Sports Books to put a wager on Postol who opened around +600 and closed at +450. Well, the odds makers were right. Crawford straight dominated and clowned Postol. Terence proved to be in a completely different and elite class in his performance in front of a packed MGM filled full of Nebraska natives cheering him on to a unanimous decision victory. Final scores were 118-107, 118-107, and 117-108. I felt Crawford pitched a complete shutout.
Different from some of his other fights, Crawford started this one out southpaw, which he always seems to have success with; although he usually switches a little later in fights. This was likely due to respect for Postol and his size advantage. The first rounds were close and tough to call, but Crawford who was much faster rocked Postol at the end of the 2nd round after struggling to get in range at first. Postol tried to control the distance throughout the fight but it was obvious he was frustrated with Crawford’s speed and movement, which opened him up to mistakes allowing Crawford to land power shots all night.
With chants of OMAHA and CRAWFORD echoing from the MGM, Crawford imposed his will on Postol, forcing a questionable knockdown in the 5th round before again putting Postol off balance and gloves to the ground for a 10-7 round. Crawford was just in a different league than the Ukraine fighter. Postol was confused in the ring and it was very hard for him facing someone with that speed and power in both hands. Crawford masterfully dissected Postol the entire fight, although their were some boos because of the lateral movement of Crawford and Postol’s inability to do much of anything much of the night. Crawford again hurt Postol in the ninth, and had Postol running backwards but could not quite finish him. There were more boos in the tenth round for inactivity before Crawford responded and rocked Postol with a couple more hard shots. Postol had his best round in the eleventh, but still lost after also getting penalized a point for punching behind the head. Crawford was never breathing hard throughout the fight and barely seemed to break a sweat going into the last round.
Postol came out hard in the twelfth and final round out of desperation, only to have Crawford uncharacteristically clown and stick his tongue out at Postol, after rocking him several times before the final bell. Crawford was very slick in this fight showing many tools. He proved he can fill seats, not only in Omaha and New York, but Las Vegas as well. With the victory, Crawford may have become Top Rank’s biggest rising star. In the post fight interview with Max Kellerman, Crawford said he wants the fights that put him at that next level. Make no mistake about it, he is in that P4P level conversation. Come on Pacquiao, if you are coming back, let’s make it happen!
In the main undercard bout, Oscar Valdez (21-0, 18 KO’s) impressed the crowd with a 2nd round knockout in his destruction of Featherweight Matias Rueda, who suffered his first professional loss. Valdez looks to be another fast rising start for Top Rank. Also on the undercard, Jose Benavidez Jr moved to 25-0 against Francisco Santana in a Welterweight bout that involved very controversial and lopsided scorecards. I had that fight a draw; while many others in the press had the fight very close as well. Benavidez was lucky in this one to put it nicely.