A matchup of undefeated fighters headlines Saturday night’s HBO Boxing slate, and on Thursday, undefeated Sergiy Derevyanchenko takes on former IBF middleweight titleholder Sam Soliman on Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN. Stats & Info previews the fights:
Saturday, July 23 ? MGM Grand, Las Vegas – 9 p.m. ET (HBO)
WBO/WBC junior welterweight title unification bout (140-pound limit)
Terence Crawford vs. Viktor Postol ? 12 rounds Terence Crawford faces Viktor Postol ESPN Stats & Information
Terence Crawford and Viktor Postol will look to unify junior welterweight title belts. Crawford will be making his third defense of the WBO belt, while Postol will make the first defense of the WBC belt he won in 2015.
Crawford enters the fight at 28-0 with 20 knockouts. Crawford, the No. 6-ranked pound-for-pound fighter and No. 1-ranked junior welterweight by ESPN, is 6-0 in his career in world title fights.
Crawford’s strength is his defense. According to CompuBox, Crawford?s opponents land 7.5 punches per round, the sixth-best rate in boxing. He has the second-lowest opponent connect percentage (19 percent), according to CompuBox.
Crawford also has the fifth-highest plus/minus rating (plus-13.2), according to CompuBox.
Postol also enters the fight 28-0 and has 12 knockouts.
Postol, the No. 2-ranked junior welterweight by ESPN, is trained by seven-time BWAA Trainer of the Year Freddie Roach.
According to the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook (as of Monday), Crawford is the favorite at minus-750, while Postol comes in at plus-525.
Thursday, July 21 ? Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut – 8 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Middleweight bout (160-pound limit)
Sergiy Derevyanchenko vs. Sam Soliman ? 12 rounds
Thursday, on ESPN, power puncher Sergiy Derevyanchenko will headline a Premier Boxing Champions card against former middleweight champion Sam Soliman.
Derevyanchenko enters the fight at 8-0 with six knockouts, including four KOs in his past five fights.
Derevyanchenko was the 2007 bronze medal winner at the World Amateur Boxing Championships as a middleweight, and a 2008 Olympian for Ukraine as a middleweight.
Derevyanchenko has dominated his past four opponents, outlanding them by nearly 20 punches per round. His numbers are impressive when compared with the middleweight average, but he could be tested by Soliman?s experience.
In his past four fights, Derevyanchenko has landed 39 percent of his total punches according to CompuBox. The average for a middleweight is 31 percent.
Soliman is 44-13 lifetime with one no-contest and 18 knockouts. He has lost his past two fights. Soliman won the IBF middleweight title in 2014 when he was 40 years old.
When he fights on Thursday, it will be 392 days since his last bout, the second-longest layoff of his career.
