Terence Crawford will venture into the super middleweight division on Saturday, September 13, when he fights in the welterweight division, to fight for the four belts held by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. However, this fight, which will take place at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, has not yet taken place and attention has already turned to who will be the American’s next fight.
A few days ago, a challenger jumped into the ring to face him. It is Ilia Topuria, UFC mixed martial arts champion, who has linked three knockouts to be crowned 145-pound and 155-pound champion in a year and a half. After finishing off legends such as Alexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira, he has established himself as one of the best boxers today. However, Terence Crawford does not consider him to be so and that has generated a response from the Spanish-Georgian.
What did Terence Crawford say about Ilia Topuria’s boxing quality?
For the welterweight and lately super welterweight champion, Terence Crawford played down Ilia Topuria’s boxing technique. He considers him a strong fighter, but it requires technique and skill beyond throwing punches. “In terms of pure boxing the best is Cody Garbrant, that guy has hands, he’s the best,” Crawford said in an interview on the Nelk Boys podcast.
Despite the insistence on the questions, Crawford denied that Topuria was among the best boxers to which the UFC lightweight monarch responded on X with a photo of a brief meeting he had in June this year at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas prior to his UFC 317 fight, where he greeted Crawford with the text: Who would win in a fight?
Ilia Topuria’s response that set social media ablaze
Faced with the responses from his followers and the repercussion on social networks, Topuria doubled down on the challenge.“I’m not going to talk about what would happen between Crawford and me in the octagon, I’ll talk about what will happen in the ring. I’ll put him to sleep on the first contact!” Topuria has mentioned in the past his intentions to fight boxers such as Canelo Alvarez in the medium term and now establishes the rivalry with Crawford.
The UFC lightweight champion claims he would knock him out “at the first contact” in a boxing match against Canelo Alvarez’s rival, who still has no opponents for 2026 after a deal with Turki Alakshikh’s Tuyah Season, but the public is patiently waiting to see if on September 13 there will be an announcement that will surprise fans in Mexico and around the world.
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