By Keith Idec

Canelo Alvarez acknowledges that he has more motivation entering his rematch against Gennady Golovkin than he had before their first fight.

All the insults and criticism Alvarez has heard and read from Golovkin and his trainer, Abel Sanchez, since twice testing positive for clenbuterol in February has fueled the Mexican icon to perform better when they fight again next month.

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The 28-year-old Alvarez admits he has taken a lot of what Golovkin and Sanchez have said about him personally and plans to take it out on the unbeaten WBA/WBC/IBO middleweight champion in their 12-round rematch.

“I’m very motivated, more than anything,” Alvarez said through a translator Sunday before their open workouts in Los Angeles. “And I’m also confident about this fight. But I’m motivated because of all that’s been said and I’m motivated to get in the ring to hurt him. I’m also very confident – not confident [because of] my opponent, because I know who I’m fighting. But confident in my preparation and what I’m gonna do in the ring.”

Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) will wrap up his training camp in San Diego over the next two weeks. He’ll then travel to Las Vegas for what figures to be a contentious fight week before their rematch September 15 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (HBO Pay-Per-View).

The former middleweight and junior middleweight champion will fight for the first time since battling Golovkin to a controversial draw last September 16 at T-Mobile Arena. Alvarez again emphasized Sunday that he will be more aggressive against Golovkin this time around because he learned during their first 12-rounder that he can knock out Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs).

“I’m looking for the knockout,” Alvarez said. “That’s what I want and that’s my objective. Like I’ve been saying in previous interviews, the first fight gave me the guideline for this second fight. So I know I can knock him out because I hurt him in the last fight, and that’s what I wanna do.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.