Canelo’s demanding traniing in extreme climates to prepare for the heat in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia will be entirely new territory for Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez. Since his boxing debut, he has only fought in Mexico and the United States, making this his first bout in an Arab country, where the extreme desert heat presents a unique challenge.

For this fight against William Scull, the Mexican super middleweight champion trained intensely at his base in Lake Tahoe, located in the Sierra Nevada mountains between California and Nevada—an ideal climate to kick off his training camp.

In fact, much of his training took place indoors, since winter cold still lingers in that region. He had to adapt some of his routine accordingly, as the boxer himself revealed in an interview with TV Azteca.

“This is one of the best training camps I’ve had in my entire career because of the high altitude where I’m training. I’m 100% focused on training, resting, and sleeping. I’m really enjoying it. I gain a lot of conditioning here—it’s truly one of the best preps of my career,” said ‘Canelo’.

The time zone challenge

Because the fight will take place in the early morning hours in Saudi Arabia, Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez has been waking up at 4 a.m. to do sparring around 5 or 6 a.m., matching the exact time he’ll be facing William Scull in the ring. He has adjusted his entire schedule to stay in sync with this timing.

“It’s the least I could do after leaving Las Vegas (for the fight). I thought, ‘People have to see the fight at the usual time, so what should I do?’They told me I’d be fighting at 6 a.m., and I said, ‘Okay, no problem.’

“I knew I had to arrive three weeks early to adjust—wake up at 4 a.m., start sparring by 5 or 6, just like I will on fight night. The goal is to get my body used to that schedule,” he told Ring Magazine.

Next step: adapting to the heat

Since most of his training took place in cold weather, the next phase was to travel to Saudi Arabia three weeks early to acclimate to the country’s desert heat.

“It’s a complete 180-degree change, but that’s why we’re going three weeks ahead—to acclimate, adjust to the schedule. I think we’ll have one week to adapt, and the other two weeks to work, that’s the plan,” he stated.