Josh Taylor vs. Viktor Postol – Weigh-in results

By Tim Royner: Josh Taylor weighed in at 139.8 pounds for his WBC light welterweight title eliminator against former WBC 140 lb. champion Viktor Postol on Saturday night at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. The once beaten Postol (29-1, 12 KOs) weighed in at 139.8 pounds as well.

This is a nice test for Taylor in facing Postol. Taylor has to pass this test for him to get to Ramirez and Regis Prograis. It’ll be a bad sign if Taylor has to battle hard to beat Postol because Prograis and Ramirez would likely destroy him.

The winner of the Taylor (12-0, 11 KOs) vs. Postol fight will be the secondary mandatory challenger to WBC light welterweight champion Jose Carlos Ramirez. Regis Prograis is current mandatory challenger to Ramirez, but e’s taking part in the World Boxing Super Series 140lb tournament, and he’s not expected to be freed up until next year, which means the Taylor-Postol winner should be the next in line to face Ramirez.

#1 Postol is trying to reclaim his WBC title that he lost two years ago in a loss to Terence Crawford in 2016. Postol was outclassed by Crawford in losing a wide 12 round unanimous decision in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 5’11” Postol used the wrong game plan against Crawford by attempting to box him for the first 11 rounds. That approach was not going to work against a skilled fighter like Crawford. When Postol changed things up in the 12th round by looking to slug, he was able to have good success. Crawford backed off after Postol got the better of him in an exchange, and he then spent the remainder of the 12th round running from him and sticking his tongue out.

Postol came back from his loss to Crawford in his last fight in defeating Jamshidbek Najmiddinov by a 10 round decision last year. It was a good win for Postol, but it wasn’t the same thing as beating a world class opponent. Most of the 34-year-old Postol’s wins during his career have come predominantly against 2nd tier opposition with little in the way of skills and zero pedigree. In facing the 27-year-old Taylor, Postol in fighting a 2012 Olympian with excellent size, punching power and boxing skills. Moreover, Taylor is fighting at home in front of his own boxing fans and that’s going to make it awfully tough for Postol to get a victory unless he gives Taylor a real beating. Postol did a good job of stopping Lucas Matthysse in the 10th round 2 ½ years ago in October 2015, but that fight ended with a 10th round knockout after the Argentinian fighter suffered a freak eye injury in the 10th. Postol didn’t hurt Matthysse with his power shots. He just happened to catch him with a shot on his eye after he walked into the punch.