Canelo: My style is superior to Golovkin’s

Canelo Alvarez is now back in San Diego where he’s opening training camp for his Sept. 16 middleweight title showdown with Gennady Golovkin. It’s familiar stomping grounds for Canelo, who has previously made camp in SoCal for his last seven fights. Speaking to ESPN about what he has planned for this go ‘round, Canelo briefly outlines his typical training schedule:

"Basically, training camp has been waking up early at around 6 in the morning to go running, and then I'll come back and relax a little bit and prepare myself for the training sessions, sparring, strategy and what we normally work on," said Alvarez, who turned 27 on Tuesday. "Usually training is almost always the same, but the strategy is different because every fighter is different. The strategy depends on the fight. While you're preparing for a fight, you don't know what happens once you're in the ring."

After his 6am run, the former middleweight titlist gets a chance to relax a little before heading to the gym for 2-5pm training sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This consists of the rather standard things: jumping rope, bag work, mitt work, etc. The other days — Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays — are scheduled sparring sessions.

Canelo, who has a very disciplined approach to training, should be in peak form come fight night, and he expects a great fight just like everyone else. But taking into account the style clash, Canelo believes he has the upper-hand in the fight.

"I'm a fighter who is a counterpuncher, and [Golovkin's] style is a come-forward style, so I think both styles will lead to a great fight," Alvarez said. "My style, the style that I have, is superior to his style. With sparring, we usually go based on someone who is similar to the fighter in order to have the same style: the height and the weight. That's usually what we focus on, to get somebody like that."

Mean while his opponent, Gennady Golovkin, officially opened his training camp last week in Big Bear, CA, with trainer Abel Sanchez saying that the hardest part is keeping Gennady from burning himself out too soon.

I don’t know about you guys, but now that I’m done that whole school thing, September can’t get here soon enough!