Terence Crawford arguably became the face of boxing when he beat Canelo Alvarez to become the undisputed super middleweight champion. Heading into this fight, Crawford was surrounded by the air of retirement, but Ilia Topuria is pushing to prevent that from happening.
The UFC lightweight champion quickly became one of the most prominent figures in modern mixed martial arts when he scored sickening knockouts over three fan favorites in back-to-back wins. His finishes of Alexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway, and Charles Oliveira were enough to propel him to superstardom in the UFC, but for his future, he has his sights set on something other than the octagon.
For a couple of weeks, Ilia Topuria and Terence Crawford have been in a war of words on social media. Topuria vowed to knock the boxer out in the first contact, with Crawford teasing the UFC standout by using his walkout song on Saturday night.
According to ‘Bud,’ he had no idea who Topuria was until recently.
“When he saw me at the UFC and came up to shake my hand and said what’s up to me… I didn’t even know who he was,” Crawford said. “Then I see him online talking about how he’ll knock me out in the first round.”
“That’s fake. I’m not gonna go hide behind the keyboard. I definitely think he’s trying to clout chase… He’s not nowhere near on the level of Conor McGregor, let’s be real. Stop it.”
“Don’t ever compare him to Conor. Like I said, I don’t know this guy. I’ve never seen this guy fight.”
Related: Terence Crawford laughs at Ilia Topuria and ‘drunk’ MMA fighters
Once again vowing to knock him out, Ilia Topuria sent his response to Terence Crawford’s comments.
“You say you’re an MMA fan, but you don’t even know who I am? Interesting,” Topuria responded. “The first time we met, you told me, ‘Good luck this week with your fight.’ Your memory fails you… And soon your chin will too.”
“I’ll represent the entire MMA community. Pound-for-pound #1 in real fights vs. the pound-for-pound boxer.”
You say you’re an MMA fan but you don’t even know who I am… interesting. The first time we met you told me ‘good luck this week with your fight.’ Your memory fails you… and soon your chin will too.
I’ll represent the entire MMA community. Pound-for-pound #1 in real fights vs… https://t.co/eM08eo3pBu— Ilia Topuria (@Topuriailia) September 16, 2025