Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez appears to have backtracked over his comments about Ryan Garcia.
The Mexican superstar raised a few eyebrows last week when he questioned his protege's work ethic ahead of his fight with Caleb Plant on pay-per-view.
Garcia, 23, stopped Olympic gold medallist Luke Campbell inside the distance to win the WBC interim lightweight title at American Airlines Center in Dallas on January 2.
But despite his brilliant display, Canelo Alvarez has been highly critical of the 21-0 American prospect.
He said: "Look, Ryan has a lot of talent. But to me in my eyes, he’s wasting a lot of time and wasting his talent.
"I look at him and don’t see him 100 percent dedicated and, to us, that’s a bad signal."
Canelo continued: "We always remind him as a team to come to the gym, to train, and to learn because you need to be in the gym.
"You’re learning day-by-day, at the very minimum fighting five times a year.
"When I was beginning my career, I did 15 fights in one year.
"That’s where I was at the beginning of my career.
"So definitely he needs to be a little more dedicated."
However, he has since backtracked on his comments to try and play down any friction between the two of them.
Speaking at the press conference today, Canelo said: "What I said about him, it wasn't meant in a bad way.
"It was meant to be constructive criticism.
"I want him to take it that way and get the motivation to get on the right track again."
Canelo also said it's now 'personal' between him and Plant, who put himself in the firing line by bringing up his mother at a pre-fight presser.
On Plant he added: "It's personal, yes. But I don't have anything to prove to him.
"He's gonna feel what I have to prove, but I don't have anything to prove to him."
READ MORE: Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez vs Caleb Plant: David Benavidez's brutally honest opinion about the fight