UNBEATEN junior welterweight Terence Crawford dominated Viktor Postol to win the latter’s World Boxing Council belt and add to his own World Boxing Organization crown before some 7,000 mostly Crawford fans at the Grand Garden Arena of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Crawford used his skills and quick movement to frustrate Postol, who failed to connect with his vaunted jab, completely baffling the Freddie Roach-trained Ukranian, who the American trainer bragged would knock out the American.
Crawford said he is willing to fight eight-division world champion, who is also managed by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, but only at 140 pounds.
Pacquiao has regularly fought at welterweight and gets a way out of facing Crawford, who is much younger than the Filipino southpaw.
The Filipino Senator will be on the edge of 38 years of age by the Nov. 5 date booked by Arum.
It leaves another Arum fighter Jessie Vargas as the most likely opponent for Pacquiao’s return at the Thomas and Mack Center, also in Las Vegas.
“I just stuck to what I knew — boxing. That’s movement and that’s boxing,” said Crawford, who improved his record to 29-0, with 20 knockouts.
Postol lost for the first time and now stands at 28-1 with 12 KOs.
Roach, the seven-time trainer of the year, was more than impressed by Crawford.
“Crawford was just too fast, he surprised me with his talent,” said Roach.
Postol, who was knocked down twice in the fifth round, seemed to be completely lost over his inability to use his jab, and connect against Crawford.
The frustration often showed and at one point, Postol just stopped and stared at Crawford just before the bell rang.
Vargas, in his last fight last March 5, scored a ninth-round TKO over Sadam Ali, after losing to Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley by a 12-round unanimous decision on June 27, 2015.
Pacquiao earlier scored a lopsided 116-110 decision on the scorecards of all three judges in his third encounter with Bradley last April 29, 2016 to win the WBO welterweight Interim title.