The former WBC middleweight champion, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez wants a piece of the UFC featherweight Champion. This is not the first time Conor has been challenged by a boxer, who previously had a back and forth war of words on social media with Floyd Mayweather involving a possible boxing match.
Before his triumphant run against Nate Diaz at UFC 202, Conor McGregor boldly spoke his mind out about his contemporaries ‘cherry picking' their opponents.
“If you look at the history of the fight game, especially in this new era, it’s full of stars cherry picking their opponents,” McGregor said. “When they hold a position of power, when they get a name, all of a sudden they pick weaker opponents. They look down their division. Nobody looks up a division. Nobody looks at true challenges,” he added.
Conor then went on to bash the Mexican star with reference to him moving down to the super welterweight division from middleweight division. “When you look at this Canelo [Alvarez] situation it’s an era of cherry picking,” Mcgregor continued.
Alvarez evaded a super fight with undefeated WBA and IBF middleweight champion, Gennady Golovkin, by opting to fight Liam Smith for his WBO Super Welterweight Championship. In the process, he vacated his WBC middleweight strap, and as a result, Golovkin was automatically promoted as the WBC middleweight champion.
Lately, Alvarez dropped a bombshell in both the boxing and MMA community by giving out an open invitational challenge to Mcgregor for a boxing match.
“If he wants to try out boxing, then anytime he wants. If he wants to come over to this side of the world and try boxing, anytime he wants, to see that it's not as easy as he thinks," Alvarez said, according to Mmafighting.com.
The current star of boxing didn’t take McGregor’s remarks lightly and tried to squash the Irishman’s reputation. He pointed out that McGregor “gasses out in two rounds” and had picked Diaz to win the rematch.
Whatever’s next on the plates of either man, McGregor has to pick his poison wisely. An immediate match with Canelo can put his status as the UFC featherweight champion in jeopardy, while a victory for Canelo over Smith can get him another 154lbs title.
