Canelo Alvarez says this fight is different than his previous 59 ... 'cause he's got legit bad blood with Caleb Plant, and he tells TMZ Sports he's gunning to really hurt his undefeated opponent.
We talked to the 31-year-old top pound-for-pound fighter in the world just days before his fight against the 29-year-old, 21-0 boxer ... and asked him if he had anger or animosity towards Plant after the men got into it at a recent media event.
“Yes, for sure it's more personal for me. But, I'm gonna use that in my favor. I'm gonna put all my skills, my experience to win this fight in a good way.”
We asked ... do you want to hurt him more after what went down?
"Yes, I'm gonna enjoy that,” Canelo responded.
We also asked how Alvarez predicted the fight would turn out.
"What I see is that it's gonna be difficult the first few rounds, then I'm gonna start doing my fight like always."
In case you missed it, Canelo and Caleb literally came to blows at a Beverly Hills promotional event in September ... with Alvarez opening up a substantial cut on Plants' face.
So yeah, the beef's real for Alvarez.
We also talked to Plant ... and we asked him a similar question.
Caleb tried to downplay the incident ... but eventually admitted he might want to put Canelo down just a bit more after the scrap in L.A.
The guys finally get their hands on each other tonight -- when no one will break 'em up -- when they fight on Showtime PPV.