LAS VEGAS ? It was the early autumn of 2014 when a man named Vadim Kornilov climbed the outside steps to Freddie Roach’s Wild Card gym in Hollywood and opened the door to a new life for Viktor Postol.
They had come a long way for this meeting ? all the way from the Ukraine.
Roach and Kornilov weren’t strangers. Postol was not the first boxer Kornilov, who manages fighters, had brought to Roach. ADVERTISING inRead invented by Teads
Roach was about to leave for the Philippines to supervise Manny Pacquiao’s training for his upcoming fight with Chris Algieri, a tall welterweight. Roach looked at Postol and noticed he is 5-11.
“Go change and get in the ring,” Roach said.
After the audition Roach told Kornilov, “I’ll take him and teach him. I need a tall sparring partner for Manny. He’s going with us to the Philippines.”
So began the education of Viktor Postol, who meets heavily favored Terence Crawford at the MGM Grand Garden on Saturday night in a light welterweight title unification bout.
“He was green back then and I didn’t want to tell him anything or change anything, because I wanted him to challenge Manny in his own way,” Roach said. “After a while, he did so well I cut him back to every other day because he was turning the sessions into real fights.
“Manny’s speed is too hard for most sparring partners to handle, but Viktor adjusted, That was all I had to see. I told him I’d teach him and train him. He’s a great pupil.”
One day Roach told him he was the best Russian fighter in the Wild Card Gym.
“I am from the Ukraine,” Postol said.
“All right, then you are the best fighter from the Ukraine in the Wild Card Gym,” Roach countered.
Roach was never big on geography, but the care, refinement and development of a world class fighter is something else.
Graduation night arrived on Oct. 3, 2015. Postol was given little chance against the WBC junior welterweight champion, Lucas Matthysse. In the Round 10, Postol unleashed a ferocious right and shattered the champion’s orbital bone, ending the fight.
It was a stunning upset and it catapulted Postol into Saturday night’s fight against Crawford, the WBO champ. Apparently, Roach and Postol are the only ones who think he can win. Up and down the Vegas Strip, the hotel sports books list him as a staggering 6?-1 underdog.
“Well, I love this fight for him,” Roach said. “I think we can outbox him. I think we should be favored instead of him. They are each undefeated and they each have the same record. I like his chances a lot. I also like money and, at those odds, I’m going to get some of it. Viktor is pretty much an unknown. But I know a few things about him most people don’t.
“He’s tall for the division at 5-11. He has a great jab and speed and he can box. Matthysse can confirm what I know about his right hand. He can be explosive with it.”
Conversely, Crawford is the favorite on merit. He has dominated most opponents and is probably the clearest heir to the No. 1 slot in Top Rank’s stable. He can punch. He can adjust. He has mastered the basics and he knows when to bring out the flash. He is an entertaining and formidable fighter.
This promotion is clearly intended to serve as his showcase. Even the venue was selected with him in mind.
“He is the unchallenged athletic king of Omaha, Neb,” promoter Bob Arum said. “When we made the match, that was a consideration. Postol doesn’t have the following to be a factor in New York, where the Ukrainian community belongs to [Wladimir] Klitschko.
“But this is July and America goes on the move in July. We were thinking, well, everyone wants to come to Vegas and we think we can attract a lot of his loyal fans, who would gladly take a long weekend here for the fight and the action.”
This is known as combining pleasure with pleasure.
Roach has been at work explaining the economics of Postal’s status as well as refining his skills: “He knows this is where the money is. He knows he has to be skilled at giving interviews and that’s why he is being tutored in English.
“All he has to do is win and the rest will follow.”
Said Postol through an interpreter: “I came here 100 percent only because Freddie was here. I wanted him to teach me. I listen because everything he says [means] money to me.”
The conversion drifted to his jobs before boxing.
“I worked security in the Terminal Movie Theater near Kiev,” he said. “You can bring a bottle or a can into the movies. My job was to try to get the drunks to give up the alcohol or put it in a plastic cup.
“But there were a lot of drunks. One day, this guy got in my face and was very disrespectful and I wanted to hit him, but I couldn’t because it was against the rules.”
“You realize,” someone suggested, “that somewhere in Kiev there will be a guy in front of a television set on Saturday thinking if you win big, he’ll have a hell of a story to tell.”
Even with his limited English, Postol joined in the laughter.
