Josh Taylor v Viktor Postol: Too Much Too Soon?

Josh Taylor v Viktor Postol: Too Much Too Soon?

Guiding a prospect’s boxing career is a fine art, carefully matching the fighter, getting them the rounds and the experience they need and gradually increasing the quality of opposition, get it wrong and push too soon, that prospect may never recover.

This Saturday night in Glasgow the new Scottish hope Josh Taylor gets his toughest test so far as a professional when he meets the former world champion Viktor Postal with a world title tilt likely for the winner.

Taylor (12-0) is certainly not doing it the easy way, Taylor is of course guided by the McGuigan’s and the fight with Postol reminds me of when Barry McGuigan fought Juan LaPorte in 1985. LaPorte was still a highly dangerous opponent at the time but considered just ever so slightly on the slide, this fight with Postol mirrors that fight in Belfast all those years ago.

Like McGuigan, Taylor will be roared on by a passionate crowd at the SSE Hydro in what could be one of the fights of the year. Despite having only 12 fights, Taylor’s team must have incredible confidence in their man’s abilities to match him with someone of Postol’s pedigree so soon in his career.

Postol (29-1) even at 34 is still a tough test for Taylor, the one defeat on his record is a points loss to Terrence Crawford in 2016. Postol has only fought once since the Crawford fight when he was dropped in the 5th but recovered to win on points against Jamshidbek Najmiddinov last September.

In 2015 Postol was still good enough to beat and stop Lucas Matthysse in 10 rounds to win the vacant WBC super-lightweight title, but the relative inactivity since and then getting dropped last time out is a concern, is Taylor getting him at the right time.

In only his 7th fight Taylor won the Commonwealth title, and then completely dismantled the then unbeaten Ohara Davies in a red-hot atmosphere last year in Glasgow. Taylor followed that by becoming the first man to stop the former IBF champion Miguel Vazquez.

The odds favour Taylor strongly and the Scot promises to make a huge statement against Postol, but the Ukrainian is the sort of fighter that will tell us just how good Taylor is.