Terence Crawford won’t take back his reaction to Ilia Topuria‘s first-career loss.
Topuria (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) was a massive favorite against Justin Gaethje (28-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) in their lightweight title fight at UFC Freedom 250, but wound up getting stopped at the end of Round 4 when doctors waved the fight off.
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Crawford and Topuria have traded plenty of barbs in the past, with Topuria confidently saying he’d knock out the former undefeated champion in a boxing match. Crawford jumped at the opportunity to mock Topuria after his loss.
“I didn’t know who he was until he came out saying he would knock me and Canelo out, and I’m like, ‘Who is this guy?'” Crawford said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “They’re like, ‘Terence took a picture with him,’ and I’m like, ‘I’ve never seen him fight.’ Then everybody was just telling me he can fight. So I’m like, ‘Well, I’ve never seen him fight so I can’t speak on nothing, but I know he’s not whooping me.'”
The now-retired Crawford finally got to watch Topuria fight when he was in attendance at the White House last month.
“Everybody’s saying he got this enormous boxing ability, that he can go into boxing and do real well,” Crawford said. “So, I’m really tuning in. This is my first time seeing him in a fight, and the first impression wasn’t the best impression. For him to come out and say he going to beat me, one of the best fighters of all time, knocking me out, I think it was a sign of disrespect. You’re not respecting my craft, which I would never go into MMA and disrespect them and say I’d choke you out or I’d do this, when I know it’s going to be a tough task to do.
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“That’s their field. They’ve been doing that for so long that they know the ins and outs, just like boxing. I’ve been doing boxing since I was 7 years old. There’s no way that this guy is going to come in there and do anything to me that I ain’t never seen before. So seeing him get hit with the jab and the 1-2 the whole fight, I’m like, ‘What? What’s everybody excited about?’ He did some good body shots. He came straight forward like any straightforward fighter and he lost.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Terence Crawford: Topuria saying he could beat me ‘was a sign of disrespect’
