Crawford: 2.6m IG followers, Most viewed YT video 7.3m views Topuria 11.4m IG followers Most viewed YT video 15m views
Bud is not the guy these MMA guys need to be boxing. Unless, of course, it's staged. If it's not, Ilia is getting murdered.
This content is protected Coming out with his belt to a standing ovation at the stadium of the biggest sports team in the world.
UFC does this thing where if a fighter gets a couple knockouts, they act like they are world beaters. Every 6 months they got a new guy who is the best fighter of all time, according to Dana White. Crawford is a guy who has been building his resume for 15 years, not 15 months like this Topuria guy.
UFC isnt on PPV practically anywhere outside of the US, nor is boxing for the most part. Do you think more people in Spain are watching Bud fights than Ilia fight? ****, outside of the Canelo and Spence fights i'd expect Ilia fights are getting more viewers than Crawford fights globally. Again, look at those Youtube and Social media numbers for the two of them. That doesnt come from nowhere.
Thats because the UFC guys get put in big meaningful fights fast and often while boxers tread water for 80% of their career. At the point where Bud was 17 fights in like Ilia currently is he had fought absolutely nobody of note and 11 of his wins were over guys with losing records. Then when a big mainstream fight came along that everyone wanted to see (Spence) it got dragged out for like 5 years. This is why hes only now starting to become a star in his late 30s when its basically too late. UFC matchmaking is usually more of a high risk/high reward approach so careers advance quicker. Also, ive been watching MMA for like quarter of a century and Ilia is absolutely not some standard flavour of the month guy who "got a couple knockouts". Theres an argument to be made that hes just put together the best 3 consecutive wins that anyone has ever gotten in the history of the sport.