Ilia Topuria may be the UFC’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter, but that hasn’t stopped him from repeatedly calling out Terence Crawford for a boxing match, especially after watching him dismantle Canelo Alvarez this past Saturday night.

The war of words between them has continued to escalate with Crawford effectively dismissing Topuria, which further enraged the reigning UFC lightweight king as he promises to silence the new three-division undisputed boxing champion should they ever meet. There’s little doubt in an MMA contest Topuria would be a massive favorite to beat Crawford, but the same can’t be said about a boxing match according to UFC legend Matt Brown.

“Topuria has to train all the skills. Kicks, knees, elbows, takedowns, grappling, cage work,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Terence has only trained his hands, however many years. I know he wrestled in high school or some shit like that.

“It’s not a fair fight when you’re taking away all your other weapons. You’re essentially saying I can beat you in an unfair fight — unfair for me — and I can beat you with the cards stacked against me. That’s a tough one to believe. It’s a tough buy-in.”

Brown admits because it’s a fight and Topuria is arguably the best of the best in the UFC currently, you can’t completely count him out. Stranger things have happened — including former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou scoring a knockdown against Tyson Fury before ultimately losing a razor-close decision in his boxing debut.

That’s the factor that Brown can’t completely ignore even if realistically he doesn’t see a path to victory for Topuria over Crawford.

“I don’t think he stands a chance but people do f*cking amazing things in this world and it blows us away sometimes.” Brown said. “What Francis [Ngannou] did blew me the f*ck away. I’d hate putting it past him. It’s silly for anybody to be like of course he’s going to win that fight, he’s f*cking Ilia Topuria! He knows how to fight. It’s ridiculous.

“It’s an unfair fight. It’s literally an unfair fight. He doesn’t train his hands as much as Crawford does so it’s completely unfair. But I guess that’s just me with my little optimistic, positive self-talk person there. I’d love to see a top MMA guy go and beat a top boxer. I would just love it. It’s just not going to happen most likely.”

The only other time a UFC fighter at this level ventured into boxing was the 2017 showdown between then two-division champion Conor McGregor and undefeated legend Floyd Mayweather.

The lead-up to the event was electric, with McGregor and Mayweather sharing a world tour that produced more than a few classic moments as the fighters engaged in a war of words for the ages. But the fight itself played out in fairly lopsided fashion with Mayweather biding his time until he started picking McGregor apart before scoring a TKO finish in the 10th round.

Brown knew from the jump McGregor didn’t have any chance to actually threaten Mayweather in a boxing match, and the same can be said for Topuria challenging Crawford.

The biggest difference was McGregor and Mayweather turned their fight into a spectacle and Brown just see Topuria vs. Crawford having that same appeal.

“Realistically we got excited about the Conor fight because it was Conor’s shit talk and Floyd is good at responding to the shit talk and get at shit talking himself,” Brown said. “The drama was the interest there. At least us in the know.

“The only people saying Conor had a chance were the f*cking noobs. These people that started watching when Conor started rising in the UFC. Those were the people picking [him].”

As unlikely as it seems Topuria ever gets his wish, Brown can’t fault him for chasing his dream and probably a hefty paycheck to boot.

“We’re talking about it, and that’s what they want,” Brown said. “That’s what Topuria wants, we’re talking about him. More power to him. Keep believing, and if he can get that f*cking payday, I hope he does.”

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