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WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has ordered the organization’s junior welterweight champion Danny Garcia to fight mandatory challenger Vitkor Postol.
Purse Bid Scheduled
According to Sulaiman, a purse bid has been scheduled for September 12 in case the camps of Garcia and Postol do not reach a deal. During the same announcement, Sulaiman also ordered a purse bid for the heavyweight title match between Bermane Stiverne and Deontay Wilder.
Postol (26-0 with 11 knockouts) became the WBC’s mandatory challenger following his 11th round TKO victory over Selcuk Aydin last May. He also owns impressive victories over Henry Lundy and DeMarcus Corley. The champion is being promoted by Golden Boy promotions while the challenger is co-promoted by the Ukrainian Elite Boxing and Top Rank Promotions. Both camps are currently in a “free negotiation” period where they can avoid the purse bid by making the fight themselves.
Could be Moving Up
But the unbeaten Garcia (29-0 with 17 knockouts), who also holds the Ring and WBA junior welterweight titles, has hinted that he might be moving up in weight to get the bigger fights at the star studded welterweight division. He also has talked about a unification bout with IBF title holder Lamont Peterson instead of fighting Postol.
According to Postol’s manager Vadim Kornilov, his fighter is “ready to face Garcia.” But should the champion move up in weight and vacate the title, they are also prepared to face the hard hitting Argentinian Lucas Matthysse who is next in line for the title. Garcia previously defeated Matthysse via unanimous decision last September 2013 in his third title defense.
Legit Threat
The 30 year old Ukrainian fighter poses as a legitimate threat to the unbeaten record and title reign of Garcia. His 5-11 height and heavy work rate could cause a lot of problems for Garcia who is having a tough year in 2014. His first fight of the year against Mauricio Herrera last March was controversial because most fight observers believed that Herrera outboxed Garcia.
Then earlier this month, Garcia knocked out an overmatched Rod Salka in a non-title bout that also raked in a lot of criticisms. Clearly, Postol is too tough to risk Garcia’s unblemished slate because he is much better than most of Garcia’s previous opponents. If Garcia had problems during his fight with Herrera, then a taller boxer like Postol could be potentially dangerous. Postol is not someone whom Garcia can control with his jab because of his reach. If Postol imposes his length, Garcia will have to push the action and eat some punches to get to his opponent.
Garcia has three options against Postol: 1. knock him out, 2. outwork him every round or 3. vacate the title. It’s more likely that his father Angel would let his son take the third option and hope they land a big fight at welterweight.
