Josh Taylor vs. Viktor Postol To Fight In WBC Title Eliminator
After an injury cost Viktor Postol a chance at the interim WBC junior welterweight title, Postol will get a chance to get back to world title contention.
Postol will fight WBC Silver junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor at the SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, on June 23. The fight won’t simply be a battle between two of the division’s top contenders as the WBC made the fight a final title eliminator for the WBC title currently held by Jose Ramirez.
Postol was originally scheduled to face Regis Prograis back in March for the vacant interim WBC title, but Postol suffered an injury which forced him to withdraw from the fight. Postol was replaced by former unified champion Julius Indongo, but Indongo was quickly knocked out by Prograis in their fight.
Although the WBC would like to have their two 140-pound world champions fight, it won’t happen in the coming months. Prograis is defending his interim title on July 14 against Juan Jose Velasco on ESPN and if Prograis wins, then he is expected to enter the World Boxing Super Series junior welterweight that has yet to be formally announced.
Ramirez on the other hand, will be defending his WBC title against Danny O’Connor on the July 7 Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card. The winner of the Postol vs. Taylor fight is expected to face the winner of the Ramirez vs. O’Connor fight.
Postol, the WBC's No. 1 ranked boxer at 140 pounds, has not been very active since losing his WBC title to former undisputed champion Terence Crawford in 2016. Postol only fought once since the loss to Crawford, a unanimous decision win over Jamshidbek Najmiddinov. Taylor, who is 12-0 as a pro, already fought once in 2018, stopping Winston Campos in three rounds to retain his WBC Silver title.
