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Freddie Roach on Postol's win over Matthysse, matchup with Crawford

Freddie Roach discusses his belief that Lucas Matthysse was ready to fold, and a potential Postol-Crawford fight in 2016.

Marcos Villegas: "Freddie, number 36. Did you ever imagine you'd get to that many world champions?"

Freddie Roach: "No, I kinda lost count. Marie's keeping track now. I'm really happy. It was a great fight. Thing is, the styles didn't mesh together too well at the beginning, but then as the fight settled in, it turned into a better fight. When he was going forward and backing him up, Matthysse's not too good at fighting on the back foot. He pressured him a little bit and threw a lot of combinations. And I did tell Max Kellerman, he came to my corner right before, I said, 'This guy's about to quit.' He said, 'When?' I said, 'Right now.' And it came true."

Villegas: "Why did you think that he was about to quit? What did you see?"

Roach: "I saw the combinations were landing, he was fading. He was just getting weaker and weaker, he was getting less aggressive. He showed all the signs of someone who didn't want to be in there anymore, and he was getting very tired, I think."

Villegas: "Was there any point where you worried about the type of punches Lucas was landing on Viktor?"

Roach: "Yeah, a little bit. With this fight, when you throw a jab to the body of a short guy like him, and he's in the crouch and so forth, he's getting low, we wanted to throw that jab low, and he can come over the top with the right hand. He did land that a couple times and he hurt him once or twice in the fight. But Viktor held on and got through that and it was a great ending."

Villegas: "The holding that happened, there was a lot of clinching, what was your take? One could say because of the height difference, that could happen, but what did you make of it?"

Roach: "Well, the thing is, I did teach him last week, that when Matthysse comes in and puts his head in your chest, he's very good there, because he's going to roll and come up with a hook. I said just push him down to the ground. I'll just tell the referee he's trying to headbutt you. It didn't work out completely my way because the referee said it was our fault, but he was coming in with his head, and whenever he did, he did push him down and kept himself in a safe position. He did learn that only a week ago. Watching tape does pay off."

Villegas: "They're saying Crawford can be a potential matchup. How does your guy match up with Terence Crawford, and how would it end?"

Roach: "Postol is tall, he's got a good jab. I think he's even a better boxer than he showed tonight. I think he can do a lot better than he did tonight. But Terence Crawford is a great boxer, also. And Terence Crawford actually switches southpaw and right handed. He's a great fighter. It's a big fight of course, and I know we'd have to go there to fight, but I don't think Postol is worried about that. He's from Ukraine. He wanted this fight in America. I think it's a good fight, I'd like to see it. Maybe I'd like to see a couple fights before that, but right now I'm just happy about this one. If he's next, he's next. We'll get him in the gym and get him ready for the right guy. If it's Crawford, we'll get him ready for Crawford."

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