The current trend (sort of) in mixed martial arts right now is that fighters want to box. While Conor McGregor has successfully done it, many have since tried and failed. But that hasn’t stopped fighters like Alex Pereira and Sean O’Malley wanting a crack at that sweet sweet boxing bag (and we’re to just talking about a punching bag here). But perhaps a bit unsurprisingly, no boxers want to cross over on to this side. With the exception of James Toney (who very desperately needed a paycheck at the time) and Holly Holm (who found success in MMA because of her kickboxing background), no high-level boxer has actually made the walk-out to the cage.

And to understand why, Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford‘s recent comments on a possible MMA fight with Conor McGregor are worth taking a look at. The multiple-division boxing champ joined Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo on their podcast, where the hosts tried to convince Crawford to try out the fingerless gloves.

“I’m assuming you wrestled growing up. So you one of the few, I think you could sprawl and brawl, why you ain’t thought– ‘cuz you get big bags where you at now. But I mean you decide you want to slide through and just [give MMA a try], I’m saying you decide you want to slide through it,” Usman said on his Pound 4 Pound podcast.

“You trying to throw elbows? You trying to throw knees?” Cejudo added playfully. But the ever-stoic Crawford was clear. “No, I’m not trying to throw none of that,” the Omaha native replied. “You and Conor,” an unconvinced Kamaru Usman persisted. “What you thinking, you and Conor? That’s same weight.”

Which brought Crawford to the main reason he didn’t want to fight Conor McGregor in the Octagon. “Don’t kick me, man. Conor don’t kick me,” ‘Bud’ protested. “Right, right, right. Conor do kick,” ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ agreed. And that, in a nutshell, is why no boxer wants to try MMA. MMA is much more multi-variate than boxing.

Although ‘Bud’ has some wrestling experience and may handle himself well on the ground with some training, the kicks, elbows, knees, and spinning backfists are something he would be wholly unfamiliar with—as would any boxer. Its just that since MMA guys train boxing anyways, and the paychecks are significantly better in the ring, many more of them are willing to cross-over to boxing.

But boxers don’t really have any incentive to return the favor. The pay isn’t as good in MMA, especially compared to the risk they would be taking by entering the Octagon. And even though he doesn’t plan on fighting in the UFC anytime soon, there are some things that Crawford thinks boxing can learn from the UFC.

Terence Crawford reveals what he admires most about the UFC

The thing that Terence Crawford likes most about the UFC is that they “do have a good way of putting on the best fights at the right time.” But more importantly, ‘Bud’ really liked that “a guy can lose and still be supported” by fans. Taking a loss in the post-Floyd Mayweather boxing landscape is considered a cardinal sin in the unforgiving world of boxing.

To protect that ‘O’, many big stars avoid taking tough fights, which is perhaps the biggest problem with boxing today. And this is not so at all in MMA. The fans understand that if the best fight the best, someone’s gonna lose, which Crawford found admirable.

“Nowadays in boxing, Floyd [Mayweather] made it to where you lose and they’re kicking you to the curb and [saying] you’re a bum, you’re this, you’re that. It’s like, dude lost to a good fighter. You know what I mean?” he added.

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Well, in good news for Crawford, all of these things may be coming soon to boxing. Dana White and TKO Holdings (who own the UFC) are launching a boxing league in the near future. White has promised to apply the ‘UFC model’ to boxing, which means no more ducking, no more avoiding tough opponents, and no more obsession with staying undefeated. What do you think about Crawford’s comments on a McGregor fight and MMA in general?