Thursday, July 14th 2016

Crawford-Postol Fighters to Hold Meet-and-Greet in L.A.

LOS ANGELES (July 14, 2016) — Fight Week for the most anticipated fight of the year — the junior welterweight world title unification fight between undefeated top pound for pound gladiators TERENCE “BUD” CRAWFORD and “THE ICEMAN” VIKTOR POSTOL — will begin with afree public workout, sponsored by Tecate, in Los Angeles This Sunday! July 17, from 2:00 to 4:00 P.M. PT, before resuming in Las Vegas on Tuesday, July 19. Adding to the festivities will be nationally-syndicated radio star PIOLÍN, who will host the entire event.

Undefeated No. 1 featherweight contender and two-time Mexican Olympian ÓSCAR VALDEZ, undefeated former interim world champion JOSE BENAVIDEZ, JR, and his opponentFRANCISCO “CHIA” SANTANA will host an outdoor public workout for fans at El Pueblo Historical Monument Kiosko located on Los Angeles’ famous Olvera Street. The workouts will begin at 2:00 p.m. PT and will be followed by meet and greets with the fans. Also attending, though not working out, will be GILBERTO “ZURDO” RAMIREZ, Mexico’s undefeated WORLD BOXING ORGANIZATION (WBO) super middleweight world champion with the matinee idol looks, POSTOL and his Hall of Fame trainer World-Famous FREDDIE ROACH, who will also be signing autographs and taking photos with the fans. Valdez, Benavidez and Santana will all be featured in fierce battles on the TERENCE CRAWFORD – VIKTOR POSTOL pay-per-view undercard.

Valdez (20-0, 17 KOs), who represented Mexico in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, and was the first Mexican fighter to qualify for two Olympic games, will be facing undefeated No. 2 world-rated contender MATÍAS “LA COBRITA” RUEDA (26-0, 23 KOs), from Tandil, Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the vacant WBO featherweight world title.

Benavidez (24-0, 16 KOs), from Phoenix, AZ, the former World Boxing Association (WBA) interim super lightweight champion and current No. 4 world-rated welterweight contender, will be facing Santana (24-4-1, 12 KOs), from Santa Barbara, Calif., in a 10-round welterweight rumble.

Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with Tecate, All Star Boxing and the motion picture “Hands of Stone,” the Crawford vs. Postol world championship event will take place on Saturday, July 23 at the MGM GRAND GARDEN ARENA in Las Vegas, Nev., and be produced and distributed live by HBO PAY-PER-VIEW® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT.

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Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs), of Omaha, Neb., already a two-division world champion, has won four of his last five bouts by stoppage. The consensus Top-10 pound-for-pound fighter will be making his MGM Grand Garden debut in his third title defense as WORLD BOXING ORGANIZATION (WBO) junior welterweight world champion.

Postol (28-0, 12 KOs), from Kiev, Ukraine, put his stamp on the boxing landscape when he scored a 10th-round knockout of the heavily-favored former world champion Lucas Matthysse to capture the vacant WORLD BOXING COUNCIL (WBC) super lightweight world title on October 3, 2015. Having won two of his last three fights by knockout, the Freddie Roach-trained Postol will be making his first defense of that title.

Remaining tickets are priced at $304, $204, $104, and $54, not including applicable service fees. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call AXS at (888) 929-7849. Tickets are also available for purchase at MGMGRAND.COM or AXS.com (HTTP://BIT.LY/24ORYHS)

For fight updates go to WWW.TOPRANK.COM, or WWW.HBO.COM/BOXING, on Facebook atFACEBOOK.COM/TRBOXING, FACEBOOK.COM/TRBOXEO or FACEBOOK.COM/HBOBOXING, and on Twitter atTWITTER.COM/TRBOXING, TWITTER.COM/TRBOXEO, or TWITTER.COM/HBOBOXING. Use the Hashtag #CrawfordPostol to join the conversation on Twitter.

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