Terence Crawford brutally responds to Ilia Topuria callout

Terence Crawford has dismissed a callout from UFC star Ilia Topuria after spectacularly defeating Canelo Alvarez in their pound-for-pound clash in Las Vegas.

Crawford (now 42-0) stunned Mexican star Alvarez over the weekend as he climbed two weight divisions and still took his undisputed super middleweight titles with a well-earned unanimous decision victory – becoming the first man in boxing’s modern era to become undisputed champion in three different weight divisions.

Questions have swirled as to who the American will face next, with retirement also a genuine option for the undefeated 37-year-old.

One man to throw his hat into the ring is UFC champion Topuria, who hasn’t been shy in claiming he would knock Crawford out, even in a boxing match.

The unbeaten Topuria is one of MMA’s greatest active knockout artists, having won the featherweight and lightweight titles with knockouts of divisional greats.

In 2024, he stopped Alexander Volkanovski to win the 145lb belt, before doing the same to Charles Oliveira in June to claim the vacant 155lb strap.

In between, he knocked out another former champion in Max Holloway to retain the featherweight gold, but while fans anticipate his first defence at lightweight, “El Matador” has seemingly got one eye on a boxing crossover.

Writing on social media ahead of the Canelo-Crawford bout, he said: “I won’t talk about what would happen between me and Crawford in an octagon, I’ll talk about what would happen in a ring. I put him to sleep in the first contact.”

That bold claim hasn’t ruffled Crawford, however, with the boxing superstar brutally responding to the callout and dismissing Topuria out of hand, while also claiming the UFC champion is a keyboard warrior who wasn’t brave enough to challenge him when they met face to face.

“To be honest, I’ve never even seen this dude fight,” Crawford explained on Ariel Helwani’s show. “I’m not worried about that guy, at all.

“It’s crazy how things work. I didn’t even know who he was, When he’s seen me at the UFC, he came up, shaking my hand, saying ‘what’s up’ to me – I didn’t even know who he was.

“Then I’ve seen him a lot talking about how he’d knock me out in the first round. If you wanted to fight me, you had the opportunity to tell me ‘hey man, I want to fight you, what’s up’. That’s fake. If I don’t like somebody and I want to fight them for whatever reason, I would’ve been like ‘hey, what’s up man, what do you think about me and you fighting’. I’m not gonna go and hide behind the keyboard. I think that’s fake.”

Crawford went on to say that he thinks Topuria is just “trying to clout chase” and bristled when Helwani suggested that previous crossover UFC-boxing fights, most notably Conor McGregor’s bout with Floyd Mayweather, had proved lucrative for the participants.

“Listen, what money would I get out of fighting him? Tell me how much I’m going to get out of fighting him,” insisted Crawford. And when Helwani referenced Mayweather-McGregor in response, Crawford dismissed the notion of Topuria having the same drawing power.

“He is nowhere near on the level of Conor McGregor,” laughed the undisputed boxing champion. “Let’s be real, stop it. Don’t ever compare him to Conor.

“Conor was here (stretching hand well above his head), he [Topruria] is here (putting other hand below his chest). Like I said, I don’t know this guy, I’ve never seen this guy fight. And I watch a lot of MMA.

“Maybe I’m slipping and he’s a good fighter – I don’t know. But I’ve never seen this guy fight, for sure. I’ve seen Conor McGregor fight a lot of times. It’s night and day.”