How great could Frank Bruno been if he'd jogged 3 miles and eaten blueberries?

This...
And there was just something rather mechanical about him that couldn't be changed, he never looked a natural fighter to me.

 

Ok, so the first-person account of the reporter who ran with Ali had Ali jogging and sprinting for slightly less than two miles, the book excerpts referred to him running 3-4 miles, and the official schedule you posted claimed that he ran 5 miles. And toward the end of his career he claimed to have run 6 miles a day at some undefined time earlier in his career. Not sure what to make of it though it all seems plausible I guess. Did you ever find anything on the 6-10 mile per day figure?

 

“Ali stayed in Overtown, Miami, because most times [black] guys couldn’t be on the beach,” Dundee says. “And most of the time, he couldn’t get a ride, so he’d run across the MacArthur Parkway — about six or seven miles — to and from the gym.”


Bill Tangen, a sports editor for the Union-Gazette reporting on the training for both Ali and Norton for their third fight.

Norton sparred, went through his paces and then had a 15-minueted question and answer period. "Ali is in top shape for Tuesday," Kenny said. "He may act like he's taking it easy, but when you don't see him, he's getting ready." Dundee had mentioned to me that behind the closed doors of his hotel room, Ali did exercises.
The two training camps were a study in contrast. Norton trained in a small homey ski lodge room with an informal atmosphere. Ali was living in the lap of luxury by comparison. While Ali was running six miles mornings and appearing at noon for his public workout, Norton's regimen appeared more leisurely, although he worked just as hard.
https://imgur.com/7zbKkJS

Frazier also ran six miles a day for the first Ali fight. However, after the first Ali fight Frazier got lazy and it showed, since his conditioning wasn't as good post 71 and post 73 Frazier was a lazy slob.

Frazier has been training for the most important fight of his life in upstate New York, away from everyone. It suits him. He has trained even harder than usual, running six miles a day over rocky hills and boxing eight to ten rounds.
https://imgur.com/lCDkIZY


Patiently working out, Frazier runs six miles every morning. He starts at 6 and generally has one of his six dogs jogging along with him.
Life Mar 5, 1971
https://imgur.com/Mkn4qcz

Jimmy Young discussing his training regiment and how Ali would train.

A daily schedule was get up in the morning, do your road work. The first thing was to go to the park and run two or three or four miles, something like that. Me, When I come back from my road work, I'd get me something to eat and go to my job. Ali, Though, he'd get up in the morning, he'd run and then he'd get hisself some food and eat and get to the gym at twelve or one o'clock to work out and do everything he's supposed to do. Sometimes he might work out two hours, maybe two and a half. Sometimes just an hour. Then when the evening comes, he'd get something to eat and take a rest. And then, the next morning, he's up doing exactly the same thing. That's what you gotta go through when you're in training.
https://imgur.com/4sueFGF

 

the first blue world champion ever.

 

Just to add to this. Usyk, also seems to follow the Marciano and Ali philosophy regarding conditioning since he also puts in 5-6.5 miles of daily roadwork. In the Bellew fight all that road work certainly paid off, since Bellew gassed and he didn't.

When the boxer is preparing for a fight, his typical training day begins at 6 a.m. with an 8-10.5-kilometer run. The next training session normally takes place at midday – either weight lifting or a cardio workout. The main training happens in the evening, comprising punch bag or punching mitt workouts.


After 3-4 weeks of intensive three-times-a-day workouts, the sparring begins. The boxer’s training sessions then start at 10 a.m. or later, with sparring training done closer to the usual fight time (around 8 p.m.), so that the body gets used to working at night.
https://www.kyivpost.com/article/guide/people/meet-oleksandr-usyk-rising-boxing-legend-423515.html


Bellew's coach discussing Bellew doing interval sessions (modern BS) over old-school roadwork
What does Bellew hate doing?
Cardio because it's a killer. It's the one session where Tony is actually on the floor. We push him to his limit.

He runs. We do interval sessions. It's better than steady running.

Is old-school boxing training coming to an end?
Boxers used to wake up at 5am then go for a 10-mile run. But interval training is far superior to improve your fitness and burn calories. There is also less contact so it improves muscle strength, and reduces the impact on joints.

Some people in boxing do the wrong things - a six-mile run at 6am, sitting in the sauna to lose weight, wearing a zip-up suit on a bike. There are much more advanced methods now.
https://www.skysports.com/boxing/ne...hat-brought-tony-bellew-back-to-cruiserweight

 

There's also the genetic crapshoot that gifts some athletes more than others; some folks are just endurance animals. Training certainly complements it, but there's also an inborn and individual mix of heart and lung function added to fast and slow twitch muscle composition that can create something above the norm. Ferdie Pacheco, more qualified than most to opine, noted Ali's strongest quality, aside from reflexes (at least in his early years) was sheer recovery; between rounds, Ali would recover faster than most other fighters he knew. It's a trait certainly enhanced by his training, but also inherent in his genetic makeup. Running five-six miles a day seems fairly common among fighters, but Ali may have been able to make more of it than most; who knows, I'm not qualified to speak to matters of biochemistry and physiology. But something makes these guys better than the rest - and I don't think it's always training, for the same reason we can all follow Arnold Schwarzenegger's routine, but none of us will ever look like him.

I'll throw in another individual trait: mental toughness. Who's to say that he only ran three-six miles a day, but just had a tougher mindset in the ring? Nobody knows what goes on in another fighter's head in battle - they can say whatever they want to the public before and after the fight, but moment to moment, attacking and defending in each round, some part of their private animal brain is weighing whether this abuse is really worth it and deciding how much effort to put forth. Some can dig deeper than others, and have a deeper well to call from.

 

Even if Bruno had been able to train in a way that gave him better stamina, he had one glaring weakness that cost him everytime he stepped up other than against McCall.

Once Bruno was buzzed he completely froze, and was extremely easy to finish as a result. I do not ever recall him recovering from being dropped or hurt in a fight. He could absorb some punishment but had no recovery abilities.

It was his hard work and perseverence that led to him winning the WBC strap of McCall, overcoming serious stamina issues and that punch resistance quirk.

Any elite level big puncher who caught him clean would win via KO including Marciano.

 

I appreciate its a whimsical question, but Bruno ,to my mind was a classic over achiever who would never have gotten all those bites of the cherry had he been a US fighter.

 

I doubt those things improve the Chin.

 

I recommend putting it to the test. Try sparring with the hardest hitting guy in the gym without doing consistent roadwork and then try sparring him after getting in 3-6 weeks of diligent roadwork and I promise you'll see a difference in your durability. It helps both with taking shots and how well your legs respond after you take a hard shot. This is why guys like Marciano & Ali were so hard to stop and were always able to get back to their feet. I can always tell when a guy hasn't been doing his roadwork when his legs go weak too easily.

I'll post a few more modern fighters that had amazing stamina and durability, which could be attributed to them diligently doing their road work.

Joe Calzaghe - Some things Joe did to stay ahead of the competition. You can see why he retired undefeated like Marciano. They both had the same work ethic.

Calzaghe didn’t have a game plan for Kessler, or for anyone else for that matter. He let opponents worry about him.


“I never did anything for any boxer,” he said. “I just have a vision in my mind, what they’re going to box like, and (then I) do my own thing.

“You always train hard for a title fight. It’s the fear of losing that motivates you — gives you that extra 10, 20 percent. That gets you up at 3 o’clock in the morning to run six 5-minute miles, instead of 7-minute miles. To do 12 sprints, instead of 10 sprints.

“I knew I had to be at my best to beat Kessler. I knew at 50 percent with a bad hand, I’d have lost. I knew I had to be at my best and that’s what I was.”
https://www.ringtv.com/521503-joe-calzaghe-mikkel-kessler-look-back-super-middleweight-war-10-years/


Here is a little supplemental workout Calzaghe would randomly perform if he felt he had too much energy after completing his daily training routine.

Exercise 1 – skipping 3×2 minutes (focus on being light footed and on coordinating your arm speed with the speed of your legs).

Exercise 2 – shadow boxing 3×2 minutes (focus on head movement, footwork and guard as you throw your combinations).

Exercise 3 – bag work 3×2 minutes (focus on maintaining realistic punching power levels and fight tempo).

Pad work is a great substitute for (or addition to!) bag work if you have someone there to hold the mitts for you.

Exercise 4 – bodyweight squats 3×2 minutes (focus on keeping your guard up boxing style, with your eyes looking up, chin tucked in and back straight).

Exercise 5 – pressups 3×2 minutes (focus on ‘surviving the round’ and be prepared to drop into box press ups as your muscles fatigue).

Exercise 6 – sit ups 3×2 minutes (focus on explosive movements as you sit upwards and on controlled movements as you lower yourself back down).

The whole workout should take around 55 minutes – try to work through as many movements, combinations or reps as you can in each individual round.
http://121personaltraining.com/old-school-boxing-workout/


Timothy Bradley - Tim's chin and legs never failed him throughout his career because of his consistent roadwork.

Casey (New Jersey)
Tim, I'm a big fan, and I know that you are a fighter who can fight hard for all 12 rounds. What is your roadwork schedule like? What else do you do for endurance, and can you give me some insight towards conditioning and strength work that will help me as an amateur boxer? Thanks a lot.

Timothy Bradley
Roadwork is 4-5 miles every day. I sprint in there too.
http://m.espn.com/general/chat/chat?eventId=51425&wjb=

Floyd Mayweather also did a lot of roadwork and never had stamina problems and his legs always held up after taking hard shots

"The first day back I ran six miles," Mayweather said. "I hadn't done anything for nine months and I just went out and ran six miles. Cotto had fought not that long ago, so I had to get my endurance in. Training camp started right then. I was running a lot, 5:45 or 6:00 minute miles. It all set me up."
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/boxin...-to-begin-training-for-miguel-cotto-bout.html

GGG training for Canelo in the first fight

What’s a typical training camp schedule for you?

The team meets at 6 A.M. for a run. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I'll run three to four and a half miles. On Tuesday and Thursday, we do sprints. On Saturday, we run the mountain, which is about nine miles. After the run, we do sit-ups and stretches. Then it is a shower, breakfast and rest. I come to the gym at 3 P.M. I will spar on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday, I do strength and conditioning. We have dinner and I call my wife and son.
https://www.gq.com/story/gennady-go....gq.com/story/gennady-golovkin-real-life-diet


Modern guys that don't do enough roadwork

Anthony Joshua, Joshua does about 4-4.5 miles daily, but with all of the rest time in between it shows why his stamina is very sketchy. He should just do the 4 miles with no rest in between. Although its harder it would pay dividends in the ring.

“I do fasted cardio before breakfast to build my fitness and burn fat. Unless you wake up two hours before you train, it’s hard to have a breakfast first anyway and we like to start early.

Every fight is based on three-minute rounds with one-minute rests so I head down to a 400m track and complete a 900m run within three minutes, followed by one minute’s rest. I’ll do that up to eight times to help simulate the demands of a fight.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-...ings-you-didnt-know-about-heavyweight-traini/

Dillian whyte randomly runs 6 miles whenever he feels like it, but doesn't do it consistently. If he did he would've performed a lot better against Joshua and definitely would've stopped Parker.

This content is protected

What is your average day like?

Morning, 10am cardio training, 2pm strength and conditioning, 6pm boxing. That is an average day for me, all throughout the week.

With strength and conditioning, obviously other times we go and mix it up, and keep changing it around.

Do you aim for a certain weight?
I just try and come in under 18 stone. I look a bit more disciplined, that's all. I'm not as fleshy.

My strength is the same, my speed is the same, but under 18 stone, 17st 7lbs, 17st 8lbs, that's a successful weight for me I feel, and I feel strong. I look better at that weight.

Deontay Wilder - Wilder does lots of cardio such as sprints on the treadmill, spends a lot of time on the bicycle, and does a lot of swimming, which has served him well so far, but also he hasn't had anybody fight him at a fast pace yet and even in the Ortiz fight for the first time his stamina started looking a little suspect.

Wilder gets on a treadmill — another “soft surface” for running, as is sand — for some high-intensity cardio. One workout involves 30 reps of 30 seconds of running, followed by 30 seconds of rest, at a “grade 9” incline, according to Khoury.

Wilder said that “a lot of fighters don’t train for balance, but that’s one of the most important things.” One of his go-to balance workouts is to wear a weighted vest while standing on a Bosu ball, sometimes on just one leg, while catching medicine balls thrown at him from a variety of angles.

His toughest routine? Putting on a 25-pound vest and grabbing a pair of 45- or 50-pound dumbbells, then going up and down the 21 steps at his gym. He does this for three minutes at a time, with a minute of rest in between — akin to how boxing matches unfold — and varies his movements from one “round” to the next.

“Oh my goodness, that right there . . . that’s why I know my legs are strong enough,” Wilder said with a chuckle. “That’s my least favorite workout. I hate that one.”

Wilder prides himself on exercising regularly, even when not specifically training for a fight. “I’m never out of shape, man,” he said. “Never, ever, ever out of shape.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...2792f854297_story.html?utm_term=.f767edcf93e2

Amir Khan - Did some roadwork, but not enough of it and didn't train year round despite Hunter constantly urging him to and therefore he often under performed.

Khan's conditioning schedule for Canelo was 3-4 miles a day, which in all honesty wasn't enough. Khan should've been doing at least 6-7 miles and he wouldn't have gassed as quickly.

2. I train six days a week, from 7am until the evening
“We train every day except Sunday. I wake up at 7-8am and do some conditioning work like swimming, running in the hills, a circuit session, or a flat run for 3-4 miles. Then I come home and have an energy drink and some breakfast, before having a little sleep-in from 9.30am until 11am. Next I wake up, have lunch, then hit the gym at 2pm.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the...ness-secrets-from-my-pre-fight-training-camp/

 

That is one of the longest run on sentences I've ever read.

 

Meth?

 

I wouldn`t know where to buy meth.