Conor McGregor critical of Canelo Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin, and Manny Pacquiao

Conor McGregor is loving every second of his boxing stardom, even if he isn’t all that impressed with his new peers.

Speaking to the media in a scrum following an open workout at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas on Aug. 11. The UFC lightweight champion was asked who he admires in boxing. After complimenting his Aug. 26 opponent Floyd Mayweather as well as all-time greats Muhammad Ali and Roy Jones Jr., he had a much less flattering appraisal for current stars Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin, who meet in a middleweight title bout just three weeks after McGregor and Mayweather’s blockbuster clash.

“Who else is in today’s game? Canelo and Golovkin,” McGregor said. “I’m not really too much of a fan of either of those. I think Canelo’s a little bit stuck, a little bit flat on his feet. When I watch footage of him, I see him just getting peppered, he has no feet under him. Golovkin, I think came to camp for this preparation badly out of shape. I’m looking at him badly out of shape up in Big Bear and I just see a drained individual. ...

“But I like the lighter guys. (Vasyl) Lomachenko and (Guillermo) Rigondeaux is a fight that I’m eager to see. Floyd’s young kid, Gervonta (Davis) is okay, he’s good as well, good, strong kid. Maybe one or two more fights, I’d like to see him in the mix there.”

One other major name that came up in Friday’s scrum was former eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao. McGregor acknowledged that a fight with the 38-year-old could be worth his time due to Pacquiao being one of the only boxers who is close to matching Mayweather’s level of mainstream recognition.

However, he was heavily critical of Pacquiao’s most recent bout, a unanimous decision loss to unheralded Australian Jeff Horn. While there was some backlash over the judges’ scorecards, few would argue that Horn performed better than expected against a legend who was supposed to walk through him. McGregor is firmly on the side of those who think Pacquiao flat out lost and he has a dim view of any boxer being on his level should he get past Mayweather.

“Pacquiao wouldn’t be a bad one because he has a name,” McGregor said. “I don’t - look what happened to him in that last fight. He got mauled. He got absolutely mauled in that fight. People were crying ‘big robbery,’ I didn’t see no robbery in that fight. I saw a man that just got mauled in a fight.

“None of those names interest me at this present time. Like I said, I’m facing the god of boxing at the moment. (Mayweather) is supposedly the God of boxing and he could have stayed the God, he could have rode off 49-0. Instead, now I am here, and now I am the od of boxing.”