Viktor Postol

Before engaging in the eliminator, Postol finished the year with a dominant decision win over tough journeyman Behzod Nabiyev (22-6-1, 16 KOs) at the SportLife club in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Over 10 rounds, Nabiyev was dropped once in round 4 and twice in the final round.

The three judges scored all rounds for Postol (100-79).

Viktor Vasylovych Postol (Віктор Васильович Постол; born 16 January 1984) is a Ukrainian professional boxer who held the WBC light-welterweight title from 2015 to 2016 and challenged twice for the WBO light-welterweight title in 2016 and in 2020.

As of May 2021, he is ranked as the world's fifth best active light-welterweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and by BoxRec and fourth by The Ring magazine.

Postol made his professional debut on 1 October 2007 at the age of 23 against Zsolt Vicze, stopping him in round 2.

He won his next fourteen bouts fighting in countries Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Spain, Russia and Georgia.

In the 10th round, Postol nailed Matthysse on the left eye with a clean right hand and he went down.

Matthysse got to one knee, but with his head down and dabbing at his eye, referee Reiss counted him out at 2 minutes, 58 seconds.

At the time of the knockout, Postol led 86-85 on two scorecards and Matthysse surprisingly led 86-85 on the other.

According to CompuBox punch statistics, Postol landed 113 of 509 punches (22 percent) and Matthysse connected on 96 of 281 (34 percent).

Postol's first significant title fight came in December 2011 against Karen Tevosyan for the vacant WBC Silver International light welterweight title.

Postol managed to win via unanimous decision to claim the belt.

He then successfully defended it against Yvan Mendy and DeMarcus Corley.

After vacating the belt, it was announced in February 2013 that Postol would next fight American boxer Hank Lundy for the vacant WBC International light welterweight title.

Lundy was originally due to fight Lucas Matthysse, but the fight fell apart.

Postol won the bout via a 12-round unanimous decision.

Two judges scored the fight 116-112 and the remaining judge scored it 116-113 all in Postol's favour.

Before vacating the belt, Postol had managed to retain it against Ignacio Mendoza.

On 7 November 2013, the World Boxing Council ordered a final eliminator for their super lightweight title, held at the time by unified champion Danny García, which would see Postol fight Turkish boxer Selçuk Aydin (26-2, 19 KOs).

In February 2014, a purse bid took place where Elite Boxing Promotions bid an amount of $120,000, which was more than Aydin's promoter Ahmet Oner offer, which was $50,000.

Due to Postol's team winning the bid, the fight was likely set for Ukraine.

It was instead announced to take place at The Forum in Inglewood, California on the undercard of Márquez vs. Alvarado on 17 May 2014.

On his American debut, Postol stopped Aydin in round 11 to become the mandatory challenger for the WBC title.

The time of stoppage was 2:52 of the round.

On 19 August 2014, the WBC ordered Postol vs. García and scheduled purse bids for 12 September.

This was then pushed back to 10 October.

On 11 October, Postol's manager Vadim Kornilov stated a deal was close to being reached for García to make a voluntary defence before fighting Postol.

Kornilov said, "There is a step aside agreement that we have almost finalized. Postol and García will both get options to take other fights over the next 4 months and then Postol will again be in the mandatory position to fight the WBC champion."

Both camps agreed the step-a-side deal the same day.

Postol next planned to fight again in December 2014.

Having not fought in December 2014, in January 2015, Postol announced that he would fight on the undercard of Danny García vs. Lamont Peterson on 11 April at the Barclays Center in New York.

It was announced that Postol would fight Lucas Matthysse (37-3, 34 KOs) in a scheduled 12 round bout for the WBC light welterweight title vacated by Danny García in order to move up to the welterweight division in August, at the StubHub Center in Carson, California on 3 October 2015.

The camps made a deal just in time to avoid a WBC purse bid scheduled for Monday.

Kornilov announced his opponent to be Jake Giuriceo (17-2-1, 4 KOs) in a scheduled 10 round bout.

This was later shortened to 8 rounds.

Postol won the fight via unanimous decision after 8 rounds.

After waiting 17 months for a world title shot, Postol outboxed and outpunched Matthysse before knocking him out with a right hand to the eye in the 10th round to punctuate a superb performance and win a vacant 140-pound world title before 7,025 at the StubHub Center.

Round after round, Postol attacked Matthysse to the body and kept his jab in his face.

Matthysse landed a few hard right hands that rocked Postol during the middle rounds, but not enough to do any serious damage.