Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez is looking for payback.
On September 15th, a highly anticipated rematch takes place when Canelo will challenge IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
They first met in the ring back in September 2017, in the same Las Vegas venue, with the contest ending in a controversial twelve round split draw.
They were initially scheduled to fight on May 5th - but the contest fell out when Canelo came up positive for clenbuterol in a pair of drug tests takes back in February.
Canelo claims he ingested contaminated meat while training in Mexico.
But Golovkin fired off some verbal missiles - and accused Canelo of being a drugs cheat.
While there was a certain level of respect in the first meeting, Canelo says everything has changed.
"Yes, absolutely, it's changed, totally. They disrespected me for everything they have been saying, everything they have been doing, all their actions. Now it's different. It's personal," Canelo said.
On the other end, Golovkin admits that he's also looking at the rematch with a different set of eyes - but he's more than willing to shake Canelo's hand when the contest is over.
"Respect is respect. We have different mentality. We have different understanding of what respect is. I think Canelo team, by doing what they did, and they lost some respect from their fans. But it's not important," Golovkin said.
"I do have respect to all the fighters, all the athletes, all the champions who fight at this level, and I think at the very end, we will find a way to shake each other's hand, regardless what the outcome, regardless what we think before the fight. As two men, we should be able to stand against each other and shake each other's hand at the end."
