Postol credits sparring with Pacquiao as career turning point

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Updated: July 22, 2016

8:00 PM ET

There’s a stoic, almost cautious nature to unbeaten junior welterweight titlist Viktor Postol’s personality, which mirrors his calculated style inside the ring.

“I’m a little hesitant and I’m not too talkative,” Postol told ESPN.com. “I enjoy that. That’s part of the way I am.”

It’s not that Postol (28-0, 12 KOs), appropriately nicknamed “The Iceman,” isn’t exciting. In fact, if you watch him compete long enough, he has a way of coming out of his shell at just the right moment — evidenced by the explosive way he finished Selcuk Aydin and Lucas Matthysse in a pair of victories that put Postol on the map in the United States.

Crawford-Postol

TV lineup for Top Rank’s card Saturday night (HBO PPV, 9 ET) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas:

•Junior welterweights: Terence Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs) vs. Viktor Postol (28-0, 12 KOs), 12 rounds, world title unification

•Featherweights: Oscar Valdez (19-0, 17 KOs) vs. Matias Adrian Rueda (26-0, 23 KOs), 12 rounds, for a vacant world title

•Welterweights: Jose Benavidez Jr. (24-0, 16 KOs) vs. Francisco Santana (24-4-1, 12 KOs), 10 rounds

•Light heavyweights: Oleksandr Gvozdyk (10-0, 10 KOs) vs. Tommy Karpency (26-5-1, 15 KOs), 10 rounds

A native of Ukraine who didn’t compete outside of Europe until his 20th pro fight in 2012, Postol certainly prefers to approach you on his terms, at the tail end of a well-considered plan of attack. It’s a good way to describe his journey from being an unknown to a fighter who is on the verge of making major noise in the sport.

Postol, 32, squares off with Terence Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Saturday (HBO PPV, 9 p.m. ET) in …

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