Gennady Golovkin Assesses Conor McGregor's Boxing Ability, Floyd Mayweather In UFC

Middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin believes Conor McGregor did well in his professional boxing debut against Floyd Mayweather last year.

McGregor ventured from the mixed martial arts world to the boxing world as he brought Mayweather out of retirement and the two combat sports cash cows clashed in a highly-lucrative fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in August.

Mayweather would eventually win the contest by way of TKO in the 10th round but many praised McGregor as although he never seriously troubled the American, he did well to nearly go the distance against arguably the greatest boxer of all time.

Golovkin, regarded by many as one of the current pound-for-pound best boxers in the world, was one who was also impressed with the Irishman's effort. In attendance for UFC 226 on Saturday night which took place in the same arena, the unbeaten Kazakh spoke to the media about McGregor and also touched upon how Mayweather would fare in MMA.

"Everybody likes him," Golovkin said when asked if he liked McGregor, according to Boxing News Online. "He’s a very good athlete, he’s a professional athlete. He’s a very good fighter. I remember last fight with Floyd [Mayweather]. This guy he goes into boxing, seriously this is difficult for him and he looks good. If Mayweather went into UFC – different story."

Despite Mayweather vs. McGregor taking place a month before Golovkin's own lucrative fight with Canelo Alvarez, it was still a big success as their September event drew 1.3 million pay-per-view buys and was the third-biggest gate in boxing history with $27 million.

The result was controversial though, as many felt Golovkin had done enough to win the bout only for the judges to score it as a split-decision draw.

After drawn-out negotiations, a six-month suspension for Alvarez, a canceled May rematch, and a win over a short-notice opponent, the highly-anticipated sequel will finally take place on Sept. 15 and "GGG" is excited to run things back, even if the rivalry is now personal.

"I’m very excited, a lot of people want to watch this second fight," he added. "I had good experience from the first fight. Right now I will change my performance a little bit. I know what I need for the second fight."

"Right now we have a different situation, completely different. Different emotions, different business deal, everything. Different respect with him. For him, it’s not good for my side… Different mentality. Not respect, we’re both professional athletes. This is fight," he added.

Golovkin and his team were not pleased with the judges in the first fight, especially as one judge, Adelaide Byrd, scored the fight 118-110 in favor of Alvarez which drew huge ridicule.

Having the fight take place in Las Vegas again increases the chances of another poor scorecard should the rematch go the distance and Golovkin still has his doubts. Both fighters though, have promised knockouts in the second meeting.

"I believe this time more professional. More professional from judges. More professional for us," he explained. "Nobody knows, this is boxing. Everybody has chance and nobody knows who will win. Right now it’s a very interesting and very dangerous question for us."