Terence Crawford vs Viktor Postol official for July 23 on HBO PPV

The rumored fight between top junior welterweights Terence "Bud" Crawford and Viktor Postol is official, and will take place on July 23 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, live on pay-per-view. For those who have not followed the story, the fight is on pay-per-view because of budgetary issues at HBO. This was not anyone's first choice.

Crawford (28-0, 20 KO) will be defending his WBO 140-pound title against WBC titleholder Postol (28-0, 12 KO) in what will be the stiffest test so far for both men. The 28-year-old Crawford has been positioned as a major future star by both Top Rank and HBO, as he's run roughshod over competition at 135 and 140 for the last few years.

But Postol, 32, is a new challenge. A good boxer with more power than his KO percentage would indicate, Postol has come into his own the last two years, since moving his career full time to the United States. He knocked out Selcuk Aydin in 2014, won a stay-busy fight in April of last year, and then knocked out the favored Lucas Matthysse to win the vacant WBC title last October.

On the undercard, Gilberto Ramirez (34-0, 24 KO) will make the first defense of his newly-won WBO super middleweight title, which he claimed on April 9 with a shutout win over Arthur Abraham. He'll be facing Germany's Dominik Britsch (32-2-1, 11 KO), a fringe contender. Featherweight prospect Oscar Valdez (19-0, 17 KO) will also likely be in action, and there are also potential slots for 2012 Olympic gold medalist Ryota Murata (9-0, 6 KO) of Japan, and a possible fight between welterweight Jose Benavidez Jr (24-0, 16 KO) and Francisco Santana (24-4-1, 12 KO).