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Viktor Postol traveled from Los Angeles to Las Vegas this week to fight for what’s left of his career Saturday night.
The former WBC super lightweight champion accepts that his life literally is on the line every time he enters a boxing ring, yet Postol also realizes that whatever he experiences during his 10-round, 141-pound fight against Gary Antuanne Russell cannot compare to what awaits him at home in war-torn Ukraine. Postol left his wife, Olga, and their twin 5-year-old sons, Lukyam and Timofey, a little more than a month ago to complete training camp at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.
Returning to the three people he loves most in this world won’t be nearly as easy.
Commercial flights in and out of Ukraine have been canceled since Russia began its invasion of its neighboring country Wednesday. Postol plans to fly Sunday into one of two neighboring countries, Poland or Romania, and then drive to his home in Brovary, an eastern suburb of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital city.
Russian forces moved into Kyiv on Friday and will attempt to overpower Ukrainian military personnel on the ground. Halfway around the world, Postol feels helpless.
“Of course it’s upsetting news from my home country,” Postol told BoxingScene.com on Thursday through a translator. “It’s been escalating for a couple days. There’s nothing good about it, but my family is safe. That’s the most important thing, so I can focus on the fight.”
Postol was comforted Thursday by remaining in constant contact with his wife, but this is obviously unlike any previous pre-fight distraction.
“It’s difficult,” Postol said. “But there’s a reason why people call me ‘Iceman.’ There’s a cold heart, always. I understand that if I go home now, today, it’s not gonna change anything. I have my people in my home country that take care of my family. I know they’re safe. I’m gonna do my job and then I’m gonna go right back home after the fight to take care of them.”
Air strikes have killed Ukrainian civilians since war broke out Wednesday, though, thus it is unclear if Postol’s wife and sons will remain in their home.
“They’re waiting,” Postol said. “If the bombing starts, they’re gonna go underground.”
Once Postol returns to them, he has no intention of attempting to leave his home country. The Ukrainian government has banned all males from the ages of 18 to 60 from fleeing Ukraine because they might be called to active duty as this war worsens.
Postol loves his country and his family felt comfortable there before Wednesday night. That’s why he never considered moving them from Ukraine to the United States or elsewhere even before Russia launched its hostile takeover of a former member of the Soviet Union.
“We’re gonna stay in Ukraine,” Postol said, “and I’m gonna protect my family.”
Former heavyweight champions Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko made international news Thursday by publicly stating their intentions to stand and fight this Russian invasion.
Vitali Klitschko, 50, is in his third term as mayor of Kyiv, an office he has held since June 2014. Wladimir Klitschko, 45, enlisted as a reserve in the Ukrainian army last month in anticipation of this conflict with Russia.
Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix reported Thursday that another Ukrainian boxing star, three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko, sought refuge at a church in Greece once the violence began. Lomachenko is expected to challenge unified, undefeated lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. on June 5 at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.
The whereabouts of IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, another Ukrainian, was unclear as of Friday morning.
Meanwhile, back in Las Vegas, Russell expressed sympathy for Postol and his family.
“I take my hat off to him because where I’m from we don’t really have war going on, where we walked around in it,” said Russell, who was raised in Capitol Heights, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. “And I’m pretty sure Russia and where he lives is completely different from my home. I can’t imagine what he’s going through.”
The 25-year-old Russell (14-0, 14 KOs) is consistently listed as a 5-1 favorite to beat Postol (38-3, 12 KOs) in a 10-round bout Showtime will televise as its co-feature Saturday night before junior lightweights Chris Colbert (16-0, 6 KOs) and Hector Garcia (14-0, 10 KOs, 3 NC) meet in the 12-round main event at The Chelsea, a small venue inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas (10 p.m. ET; 7 p.m. PT).
Postol hasn’t boxed since he lost a 12-round majority decision to Jose Ramirez in August 2020 at MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas. Ramirez (26-1, 17 KOs) held the WBC and WBO 140-pound championships at the time he opposed Postol, who has lost only 12-round decisions to Ramirez, unbeaten WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford and undefeated, undisputed 140-pound champ Josh Taylor.
Beating the emerging Russell, a younger brother of former WBC featherweight champ Gary Russell Jr., would place Postol back in position for at least another elimination match in the junior welterweight division. Russell recognizes, though, that his upcoming opponent has a much more important fight awaiting him when he tries to return home to his family.
“I want him to stay emotionally strong because that’s not something you can just take on the chin and walk away from,” Russell said. “That’s a tough pill to swallow. This is just a profession, what he do. It doesn’t define what he is or who he is. So, when it comes to reality, do what he has to do, so he can protect his family, because that’s the ultimate goal behind all of the scenes.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.