By Ryan Burton

LAS VEGAS, NV. - Undefeated junior welterweight champions TERENCE "Bud" CRAWFORD and "The Iceman" VIKTOR POSTOL will go mano a mano, in a 12-round world title unification fight, to determine the lineal king of the exciting 140-pound division.  The Crawford vs. Postol world championship event will take place on Saturday, July 23, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.  It will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT.

Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with Tecate and the motion picture "Hands of Stone," tickets to Crawford vs. Postol, priced at $304, $204, $104, and $54, not including applicable service fees,  To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000.  Tickets will also be available for purchase at mgmgrand.com or ticketmaster.com.  

Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs), of Omaha, Neb., a two-division world champion who has won four of his last five bouts by stoppage, will be making his MGM Grand Garden debut in his third title defense as World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior welterweight world champion.  The consensus Top-10 pound-for-pound fighter will be looking to build on his star-making 2014 which featured three world championship victories as well as Fighter of the Year honors from the Boxing Writers Association of America and major media alike.  Crawford, 28, captured the vacant WBO junior welterweight crown on April 18, 2015, via a devastating sixth-round knockout of once-beaten No. 2 world-rated contender Thomas Dulorme. 

He has successfully defended the title twice -- stopping No.2 world-rated contender Dierry Jean in front of a packed house at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha on October 24, 2015, and knocking out Top-10 contender Hank Lundy in the fifth round last February 27, at a soldout Theater at Madison Square Garden.  Crawford began his career-best year on March 1, 2014, just 13 days short of the sixth anniversary of his professional debut.  He captured the WBO lightweight title, dethroning defending champion Ricky Burns on Burns’ home turf of Glasgow, Scotland.

Scoring a powerful and unanimous decision, Crawford put the boxing world on notice with his virtuoso performance as he pulled out all stops in dismantling Burns, rocking the defending champion throughout the fight, while switching back and forth between orthodox and southpaw stances. 

He followed that with a dramatic and critically-acclaimed knockout victory of undefeated former world champion and Cuban Olympic gold medalist Yuriorkis Gamboa on June 28, 2014, in a Fight of the Year nominee.  It was one of the most-watched fights of the year with over 1.2 million viewers catching the live, first-time airing of the fight, according to Nielsen Media Research. 

He concluded 2014 on November 29 with a thorough shellacking of one-time world title challenger and No. 1 contender Ray Beltran, winning 11 of the 12 rounds.   Crawford, who is friendly with Warren Buffet, is only the second Nebraska native to be recognized as a boxing world champion.  Perry “Kid” Graves, from Rock Bluff, captured the welterweight crown, knocking out Johnny Alberts in Brooklyn, in 1914, according to the Omaha World-Herald.