Canelo Alvarez is currently readying himself for a shot at WBO junior-middleweight champion Liam Smith next month in Texas, but it appears recent comments from Irish MMA star Conor McGregor have not gone down well with the Mexican.
The rivalry between boxing and mixed martial arts has been brought to the forefront again in recent weeks, following the global attention Conor McGregor created for himself with his win over Nate Diaz at UFC 202.
McGregor, has been linked with boxing quite a bit this year, having been rumoured to be in talks at one point to fight Floyd Mayweather in a boxing ring, participated in a sparring video with boxer Chris Van Heerden and recently British boxer Amir Khan suggested he would fight the Irishman under MMA rules.
McGregor is a man who knows how to play the media and leverage his charisma perhaps as good as anyone in fight business history.
Recently he was quoted as saying we now live in era of “cherry picking” in combat sports, making reference to the recent Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin fight falling through in 2016.
LA Times reporter Lance Pugmire put this to Alvarez in training camp this week and this was the Mexican boxer’s response to McGregor:
Canelo got a bit fired up when told @TheNotoriousMMA referred to him as cherry picker. He chimed back Conor “gasses out after two rounds.”
— Lance Pugmire (@latimespugmire) August 24, 2016
If both men were competing in the same sport there would be an obvious way to resolve this, but for now, it appears that McGregor’s spat with athletes from other sports and entertainment businesses (also recently the WWE) will be played out on social media.
As the Irishman likes to do.
It could be argued McGregor has a point overall though in terms of cherry picking in boxing, where often times fight fans don’t get the fights they want – at least when they want them when two athletes are in their primes.
Boxing and mixed martial arts might have their differences but overall competition can only be a good thing, forcing both to up their respective games and improve as sports as time goes on.
Although the following video is a little bit old, this is one of my favourite boxing vs MMA debate segments shot a few years back between boxing promoter Lou DiBella and UFC colour commentator Joe Rogan.
From an entertainment value alone, it’s definitely worth the watch:
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