“Y’all boxers are so disrespectful to us athletes, bro, in the UFC,” UFC welterweight Joaquin Buckley said while raising the MMA vs. Boxing debate. Days went on with several prominent individuals from both communities sharing their thoughts. But what unfolded at Karate Combat 59 has seemingly added a new layer to the discussions.

Telemundo Center in Miami, Florida, hosted the Karate Combat 59 event. With UFC’s Valter Walker headlining the card, it featured several other interesting bouts. One such fight took place between former UFC fighter Claudio Ribeiro and Olympic boxer Michel Borges.

While it was a Karate bout, Ribeiro shone on the occasion by knocking out Borges in 1:02 of round one via TKO. While both hailing from Brazil, they had different career paths in combat sports. As Borges became an Olympian in the 2016 Summer Olympics, Ribeiro had yet to make his professional MMA debut.

But in 2022, UFC noticed Ribeiro as he entered the promotion through Dana White‘s Contender Series. All it took for him to convince the UFC executives was 25 seconds, where he knocked Iván Valenzuela out in his DWCS fight. While the entry was surely impressive, the subsequent fights weren’t.

With just one victory in three fights, Ribeiro exited the UFC in 2024. But years later, the Brazilian ventured into Karate. And watching him beat an Olympian boxer has simply created an example to which many would surely refer during MMA vs. Boxing debates.

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Now, when talking about the debate, it stemmed from one of Terence Crawford’s comments. As such, it drew reactions from the likes of Joaquin Buckley and even UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier. Now, what exactly did Crawford say?

Terence Crawford downplays UFC

Terence Crawford is arguably one of the standout boxers of the modern era, who recently retired. A boxer of his caliber has surely seen the highs and lows of both boxing and MMA. But when it comes to drawing parallels between the two, Crawford holds boxing over anything.

“UFC will never be better than boxing,” said ‘Bud’ during Adin Ross’ livestream. Crawford’s assessment comes after noting the skill requirements for both sports. While it was seemingly just an opinion, it caused an uproar in the MMA community, with UFC fighter Joaquin Buckley going off at the boxing legend. To the extent that Buckley even issued a brutal callout.

“If we came outside… I could kill you,” Buckley said in an Instagram video. “I’m not saying I want to kill you or want to take you out this earth, but realistically, I would kill you if we fought.”

The debate and those aggressive digs have been part of the combat sports community whenever the MMA vs. Boxing debate arises. But with Claudio Ribeiro beating an Olympic boxer like Michel Borges, the MMA fighters have surely gotten an example to put in their arguments.