UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria is continuing to try to talk up a potential fight with Terence Crawford, despite the boxing ace claiming not to know who he is.
The undefeated Crawford is coming off an impressive unanimous decision win over fellow superstar Canelo Alvarez this past weekend in the boxing ring, which has so far been watched by a whopping 41 million people on Netflix.
Even before the fight took place Topuria had asked on social media who would win in a fight between Crawford and himself after bumping him into him during fight week, and went on to suggest that he could KO him in the first round.
That’s quite the claim given that the 37-year-old Crawford is a five-division champion with a perfect 42-0 record in his long boxing career.
And speaking to Ariel Helwani yesterday after his blockbuster win, Crawford claimed he didn’t even know who Topuria was.
“To be honest, I’ve never even seen this dude fight, I’m not going to lie,” Crawford told Helwani. “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 saw me at the UFC and came up and shook my hand saying what’s up to me, I didn’t even know who he was.
“But then I see him online talking about how he’d knock me out in the first round, and this and that. Well if you wanted to fight me, you had the opportunity to tell me, ‘Hey, I want to fight you, what’s up?‘ That’s fake. If I don’t like someone and want to fight them for whatever reason, I would’ve been like, ‘What’s up, man? What do you think about me and you fighting?‘ I’m not going to go hide behind the keyboard… and then be like, ‘I’ll knock this dude out,‘… I think that’s fake.”
Crawford went on to suggest that Topuria simply doesn’t have the drawing power to get a fight with him, while pointing out that the two-division UFC champion is a nobody compared to the sport’s biggest star Conor McGregor.
“What money would I get out of fighting him?” Crawford asked Helwani. “Tell me how much I’d get out of fighting him. He’s not nowhere near on the level of Conor McGregor. Let’s be real. Stop it. Don’t ever compare him to Conor. Conor was [up top], he’s [way lower]. 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, maybe he’s a good fighter. I don’t know. But I’ve honestly never seen this guy fight, for sure.
“I’ve seen Conor McGregor fight a lot of times. I’m just saying. Him and Conor, it’s night and day. … Am I going to make more with him than I made with Canelo? Am I going to make close? Listen, tell that guy keep up the good work in his career. I wish him nothing but the best.”
Topuria has since responded to Crawford on social media, calling his bluff that he’d never met him before by pointing out that they’d actually met once before.
“You say you’re an MMA fan but you don’t even know who I am,” Topuria wrote. “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 No. 1 in real fights vs. the pound-for-pound boxer.”
