By Edward Chaykovsky

UFC featherweight world champion Conor McGregor recently took at aim at former two division world champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez - by claiming the Mexican superstar is a cherry picker, which means the boxer prefers to take easy fights.

Canelo has taken a lot of heat in 2016. He took a lot of criticism back in May, when defended his WBC middleweight belt against welterweight contender Amir Khan at a catch-weight of 155-pounds.

More critics came out when he vacated that same title as the WBC's purse bid loomed for a mandatory defense against Gennady Golovkin.

Canelo is now returning to junior middleweight to face WBO world champion Liam Smith, who is unbeaten but unknown outside of the UK and untested against top competition. Fans are pushing for him to fight Golovkin. That contest won't happen until September 2017 at the earliest - as both sides have a verbal agreement to do so.

“If you look at the history of the fight game, especially in this new era, it’s full of stars cherry-picking their opponents. 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," McGregor told Lance Pugmire of The Los Angeles Times.

“Then, once in a blue moon, when that true challenge can’t be denied, like the [Floyd] Mayweather-[Manny] Pacquiao situation, it happens. But when you look at this Canelo [Alvarez] situation, it’s an era of cherry picking.”

McGregor's comments got back to Canelo's ear, and the young star fired right back with some verbal jabs of his own.

“I’ve been fighting the best since I was 23, since a very young age, that’s the last thing he could ever speak about me or say about me,” Canelo told Pugmire. "But I understand, there’s people out there that like to talk nonsense and stupidity.”