Ilia Topuria probably won’t get his wish but he’s doubling down on his callout to fight Terence Crawford, especially after he walked out to the same song used by the UFC lightweight champion prior to his win over Canelo Alvarez on Saturday.
Prior to the historic fight that aired on Netflix, Topuria called for a matchup against Crawford while promising to “put him to sleep” if they ever meet. Crawford eventually fired back and scoffed at the callout while saying “that dude’s drunk” when addressing
Topuria.
As he marched to the ring prior to a stunning 12-round win over Alvarez on Saturday, Crawford used the track Canción del mariachi from actor Antonio Banderas and the band Los Lobos, which was made famous in his 1995 film Desperado.
“First he calls me drunk… then he walks out to MY song,” Topuria wrote on Twitter. “Crawford, whenever you want, I’ll teach you how to dance that mariachi in the ring. And Canelo, I’ll save you a round after him.”
Topuria has repeatedly talked about his desire to crossover from MMA to boxing much like Conor McGregor did for his 2017 fight against Floyd Mayweather. While that experiment ended with McGregor suffering a 10th round knockout, he still gained an incredible amount of publicity not to mention a nine-figure payday for his efforts.
Ever since that fight ended, UFC CEO Dana White has scoffed at allowing another fighter to try their hand at boxing but Topuria believes he’s in a unique position to change his mind.
“It’s something I want to do, and I don’t think [Dana] will tell me he doesn’t want to help me achieve my dream… I’ll have his support, I have no doubt about that,” Topuria said during an appearance at WOW FC. “It’ll take some convincing, but I’m sure it’ll work out.”
While it seems highly unlikely Topuria ever gets the chance, he’s certainly got the starpower behind him to at least make that request. Topuria has quickly become one of the most talked about fighters in the world, not to mention his climb up the pound-for-pound rankings after capturing UFC titles at both 145 and 155 pounds.
