{"id":127391,"date":"2025-09-08T08:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T08:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/127391\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T08:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T08:48:08","slug":"ilia-topuria-predicts-knockout-win-over-terence-crawford-in-boxing-crossover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/127391\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria predicts knockout win over Terence Crawford in boxing crossover"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 jEZjIj\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 jEZjIj\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 jEZjIj\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p>Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/ufc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC<\/a> champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/ilia-topuria\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ilia Topuria<\/a> has claimed he would knock out pound-for-pound <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/boxing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">boxing<\/a> star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/terence-crawford\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terence Crawford<\/a>, even in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/best-boxer-rankings-fighter-list-2025-p4p-b2672704.html\" title=\"Who\u2019s really the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world?\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the latter\u2019s preferred sport<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The unbeaten Topuria is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/sport\/ufc\/ufc-rankings-fighters-p4p-list-2025-b2672703.html\" title=\"UFC rankings: The Independent\u2019s pound-for-pound fighters list\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one of mixed martial arts\u2019 greatest active knockout artists<\/a>, having won the featherweight and lightweight titles with knockouts of divisional greats. <\/p>\n<p>In 2024, he stopped Alexander Volkanovski to win the 145lb belt, before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/sport\/ufc\/ilia-topuria-oliveira-ufc-317-paddy-pimblett-knockout-highlights-b2778967.html\" title=\"Ilia Topuria obliterates Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 before wild face-off with Paddy Pimblett\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">doing the same to Charles Oliveira in June<\/a> to claim the vacant 155lb strap.<\/p>\n<p>In between, he knocked out another former champion in Max Holloway to retain the featherweight gold, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/sport\/ufc\/paddy-vs-ilia-ufc-fight-topuria-the-baddy-b2804491.html\" title=\"Paddy Pimblett provides update on Ilia Topuria fight amid UFC lightweight disarray\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">while fans anticipate his first defence at lightweight<\/a>, \u201cEl Matador\u201d has seemingly got one eye on a boxing crossover.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho wins in a fight?\u201d the Spanish-Georgian, 28, wrote on X\/Twitter, sharing a photo of himself and Crawford.<\/p>\n<p>He then added: \u201cI won\u2019t talk about what would happen between me and Crawford in an octagon, I\u2019ll talk about what would happen in a ring. I put him to sleep in the first contact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Crawford, 37, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/canelo-crawford-date-time-undercard-tv-b2815983.html\" title=\"When is Canelo vs Crawford? Date, fight time, undercard and how to watch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">is due to box Saul \u201cCanelo\u201d Alvarez on Saturday<\/a> (13 September), in one of the biggest commercial fights in years.<\/p>\n<p>The unbeaten American, a four-weight world champion who has been undisputed in two divisions, aims to take the undisputed super-middleweight belts from Alvarez.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Crawford-Canelo-faceoff.jpeg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Terence Crawford (right) will box Saul \u2018Canelo\u2019 Alvarez on Saturday\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn\"\/><\/p>\n<p>open image in gallery<\/p>\n<p>Terence Crawford (right) will box Saul \u2018Canelo\u2019 Alvarez on Saturday (Getty)<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2222691500.jpeg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Ilia Topuria winning a second UFC title by knocking out Charles Oliveira\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn\"\/><\/p>\n<p>open image in gallery<\/p>\n<p>Ilia Topuria winning a second UFC title by knocking out Charles Oliveira (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Alvarez, 35, puts those titles on the line at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the same city where Topuria beat Oliveira in June.<\/p>\n<p>Topuria was paired with Oliveira after giving up the featherweight title in February. He has since been linked to Justin Gaethje, Arman Tsarukyan and Liverpool\u2019s Paddy \u201cThe Baddy\u201d Pimblett at lightweight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-127391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}