4<\/p>\n Topuria, who was injured and forced to retire, also took a verbal beating from CrawfordCredit: Getty 4<\/p>\n Topuria and Gaethje headlined a historic event on the south lawn, which the American won in front of his home crowdCredit: Getty<\/p>\n Crawford, who is now retired from boxing, has regularly suggested ‘El Matador’ wouldn’t have a chance against him in the squared circle.<\/p>\n Topuria stepped into the cage again for his latest MMA appearance against Justin Gaethje<\/a>, in a defence of his lightweight title on the UFC White House bill.<\/p>\n And he made the headlines for the wrong reasons, as he was left battered and bruised<\/a>.<\/p>\n The champion had his title snatched after an epic display from Gaethje, with Topuria losing for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n Read More In UFC<\/p>\n And Crawford was quick to mock the defeated warrior on social media just moments after the result was announced.<\/p>\n He wrote: “This the guy that said he would knock me out and whoop me and Shakur [Stevenson] at the same time?”<\/p>\n The MMA and boxing debate then rumbled on in the comments, as many suggested Topuria would still beat Crawford in any combat.<\/p>\n McGregor furiously reacts, slams Crawford<\/p>\n One of those was UFC superstar McGregor, who was quick to tear into the American legend.<\/p>\n He suggested that ‘Bud’ was too afraid to ever step into the cage, with a boxer rarely ever taking the leap across the pond to MMA.<\/p>\n The Irishman replied in a wild tirade: “What the f**k are you saying? <\/p>\n 4<\/p>\n McGregor took aim at Crawford, slamming him for his decision not to fight in MMA and take on TopuriaCredit: GETTY<\/p>\n “You can wrestle, yet you are afraid of an MMA fight. That to me is pitiful. <\/p>\n “The kid was beaten in an MMA fight, of which you don\u2019t have the courage for. <\/p>\n “What the f**k was with all these little boxers at this show yet no MMA fighters? #TheseBoysAintManEnough.”<\/p>\n Crawford does have a wrestling background, but has never considered a move to MMA.<\/p>\n It has traditionally become accustomed that UFC fighters cross over to boxing, with the view to earning more lucrative paydays.<\/p>\n McGregor himself did exactly that, losing to Floyd Mayweather in a blockbuster match in 2017.<\/p>\n 4<\/p>\n Topuria walked out through the White House oval offcie into a brutal war of attritionCredit: Getty<\/p>\n It is now almost impossible that Crawford would ever consider a clash in MMA, particularly given he has retired and has no need to risk his undefeated legacy.<\/p>\n But the likes of heavyweights Anthony Joshua<\/a> and Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> have teased a move to MMA.<\/p>\n Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n Topuria nonetheless will now be focused on getting better after sustaining bad facial damage in his defeat.<\/p>\n He will not be interested in any more feuds until he has recovered, and is cleared to fight again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor came to the defence of Ilia Topuria after boxer Terence Crawford tried to rub salt into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,714,215945,27974,146879,101,9553,215946,715,215944,914,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-640051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-conor-mcgregor","tag-gaethje-vs-topuria","tag-ilia-topuria","tag-justin-gaethje","tag-sports","tag-terence-crawford","tag-topuria-vs-gaethje","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-white-house","tag-ufc-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ilia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/justin-gaethje-strikes-ilia-topuria-1088523769.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/general-view-octagon-ufc-freedom-1088523162.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Conor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2206607072.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Ilia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2026-washington-dc-president-trump-1088511549.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n