Crawford mocks Topuria after UFC loss: 'Who's this guy that said he'd knock me out?'

Retired boxing champion Terence Crawford publicly mocked Ilia Topuria after the former two-division UFC champion suffered a shocking corner stoppage loss to Justin Gaethje in their lightweight title fight at the White House last month, saying Topuria’s earlier callouts of elite boxers had crossed a line.

Topuria (17-1) entered the Gaethje fight as a heavy favourite, but Gaethje inflicted significant damage across the third and fourth rounds, prompting Topuria’s corner to throw in the towel after round four in one of the year’s biggest upsets in combat sports.

Crawford, who was ringside at UFC Freedom 250, wasted little time responding on X. “This is the guy that said he would knock me out and whoop me and Shakur at the same time?” he wrote, accompanied by laughing emojis.

Speaking to journalist Ariel Helwani, Crawford explained that he had not been aware of Topuria until the Georgian-Spaniard began publicly claiming he would knock out Crawford, Shakur Stevenson, and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Those comments turned the UFC Freedom 250 card into Crawford’s first time watching Topuria compete — and he was not impressed.

“I didn’t know who he was until he came out saying he would knock me and Canelo out, and I’m like, ‘Who’s this guy?’” Crawford told Helwani. “Everybody’s saying he’s got this enormous boxing ability, that he can go into boxing and do real well. 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.”

Crawford was particularly stung by the suggestion that a crossover fighter could pose a genuine threat to him. “For him to come out and say he gonna beat me, one of the best fighters of all time, knocking me out, I think it was a sign of disrespect,” he said. “I’ve been doing boxing since I was 7 years old. There’s no way that this guy is gonna 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?’”

Crawford retired this past December at the age of 38 with a perfect 42-0 professional record, widely regarded as one of the finest pound-for-pound boxers of his generation. His comments add to the broader backlash Topuria has faced following the defeat, with the 27-year-old’s pre-fight bravado towards boxing’s elite now drawing pointed responses from within the sport.