Canelo Alvarez finds himself at the apex of professional boxing on September 15th in his rematch against Gennady Golovkin but, who he is today as a man has been forged through street fights growing up in Mexico.

Growing up in Mexico Canelo turned professional at a young age but ahead of his fight with Golovkin in two weeks time, he’s gone on record about just how tough his up bringing really was.

On getting into street fights as a kid, Canelo said:

“A lot. Not just one, many fights. Over 100 fights in the streets. Since I was five years old, I remember because I had red hair I was the different one in school. They would always bother me and I had to fight everyone. We would move from one town to another, and then it would start again. My life has been about fighting since I was five. Up to about 12 or 13 years old, then I did it professionally only.”

He went on to recall how on one occasion a kid attacked him with a rock, but the tables were turned rather quickly:

“One time one of them tried to throw a rock at me. He actually threatened me and was bigger than me by about five or six years older. He regretted it. He threw the rock at me. I knocked him to the ground and he was laying there. And that’s when my sister-in-law came out because she lived across from there. She went out because she could hear the pounding going on (motioning hands holding a rock and pounding up and down). And she said: ‘Let go! You are going to kill him!'”

Expect a real life street fight in the boxing ring come September 15th.

Golovkin, like Canelo, is a street fighter turned professional boxer himself.

Don’t expect either to take a backwards step at the T-Mobile Arena.