Freddie Roach: “I’m very confident in my fighter, believe me, I really like Postol to win the Terence Crawford fight”

Freddie Roach is a hall of fame boxing trainer, best known for his work with eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao. Besides Pacquiao, Roach also has coached high profiled boxers like Miguel Cotto and Zou Shiming, but most recently he has been having success with undefeated WBC light welterweight champion, Viktor Postol. Postol has a PPV unification fight with Terence Crawford, a fight that he will again have to upset the odds to win.

In part 1 of my “On The Ropes” boxing radio interview with Freddie Roach, I discuss with him the upcoming fight for his fighter Viktor Postol and the challenge in front of them in Terence Crawford. Roach speaks on why he thinks Postol will win and why he thinks odds makers have his boxer as the underdog. Additionally. Freddie breaks down how he thinks the fight will play out from the opening to the finish. Here is what Freddie Roach had to say.

Jenna J: Viktor Postol will be taking on Terence Crawford on July 23rd. How have preparations been going?

Freddie Roach: Everything is going really well. I worked eight rounds on the mitts yesterday with Viktor, we’re working on the game plan. Depending on what Terence Crawford brings to the table, because he is a good boxer and a good puncher at times also, so we’re getting ready for him being maybe a little more aggressive or him being a little more of a boxer and just covering all of our bases depending on what strategy he comes up with.

Postol is doing very well, he’s going to box eight rounds today — today is his sparring day, he’s got two really good sparring partners, one right hander and one left handed. Postol is one of my favorite fighters, he listens very well, I call him my favorite Russian fighter and he told me he’s not Russian, he’s Ukrainian. He’s quite a nice kid.

Jenna J: Is it a little difficult to train for someone who is versatile like Terence Crawford?

Freddie Roach: It makes it a little more difficult, but the thing is, it’s not the first time in the world that this has happened, many fighters did this. One of my favorite fighters, Marvin Hagler, did it a little bit also in his fights. It’s just a small adjustment you have to make.

Crawford likes to start as a right hander and then a couple of rounds in he’ll go to his stronger side, which is southpaw, that’s where most of his knockouts come. We’ll be ready, it’s not going to be any surprise. If he does or doesn’t change, it really doesn’t matter to me.

I’m more worried about his speed than anything because he’s very fast and my guy is pretty steady down the middle, he’s a really hard worker, he’s very tall for the weight but he doesn’t have exceptional speed or gifts like Crawford has naturally, but he is a very good fighter. To me, this is a fifty-fifty fight and the best man will win, and I think the guy who comes up with the best strategy is going to win this fight. It’s about who can pull it off.

I know Crawford has been with his team for a long time and they get together very well, but they may get a little bored of each other. I see Crawford six weeks at a time and he looks fresh every time, and I don’t think it’s a deficit that we’re not together all the time — I think it’s actually a good thing because we don’t get bored of each other.

Jenna J: Odds makers have Crawford as a 3-1 favorite. What do you think they see to make Crawford that big of a favorite?

Freddie Roach: Crawford has been seen a lot more than my fighter on TV and they have really pushed him through Nebraska. More American fans have seen Crawford than my guy. Postol has been on America TV twice now, two major fights, and he looked really good in both of them, won by knockout in both of them.

Postol doesn’t have a lot of knockouts but he can punch. He breaks people down. He won’t jump the gun too soon and try to go for an early knockout, he’s very patient, he’ll outbox people and then if he gets into a position where he can knock them out in the later rounds, he will do that. I like that about him a lot, he doesn’t overdo it, he doesn’t take chances, he’s a very smart fighter.

Jenna J: In some of Terence Crawford’s fights he’s been economical with his punches. Do you think a high work rate will be one of the keys to victory for Viktor?

Freddie Roach: Yeah that’s definitely one of the things we’re working on. His jab is pumping all the time, and when he gets that jab landing and the big right hand, he does have power in the right hand. He’s just learning how to use the right hand behind the jab a little bit and he does have a lot of pop in that right hand and he can knock guys out. He is a very good fighter.

Jenna J: Freddie, what is your official prediction for Crawford vs. Postol?

Freddie Roach: This is one of those fights where the best is fighting the best, they both have identical records on wins and loses, I know Crawford has a couple more knockouts then Viktor does, but they have the same number of wins and they have no loses each. This is two champions fighting each other, this is great for me, I love this stuff. I’m very confident in my fighter believe me, I really like Postol to win this fight and we’re going there to win the fight, I know I’ll say it’s a fifty-fifty fight because they are both talented guys, but by fight time my fighter is going to be 100% ready for this fight and I think we will win this fight.