who trained the hardest

The biography by Everett Skehan goes into some detail about how committed he was as a boy to developing himself into the strongest kid in the neighborhood. Another thing I recall from it is what a fanatical walker he was, something of a throwback to the Victorian age when long distance pedestrians were cultural celebrities.

Emile Griffith apparently loved the training and conditioning process. For a long time after retirement, he seems to have maintained good conditioning. (This is separate from his physique, which was a genetic gift.)

Vito Antuofermo ran at least five miles a day even when not training for a match. He even made Hagler gas in their draw. During Vito's reign, it was he, not Hagler, who was credited as the best conditioned middleweight in the division.

Vilomar Fernandez sometimes suffered from long stretches of competitive inactivity, but Gil Clancy said he was a gym rat, working out simply to stay in shape when he wasn't preparing for a match.

Hugo Corro retired after losing the middleweight title to Antuofermo, saying that training was no longer a "joy." When he did come back, he was over a dozen pounds heavier, and clearly not as committed to the conditioning process.

Floyd Patterson never stopped working out, and in an ABC's Superstars retired athletes competition, he was the only one in the rowing event with his shirt off. Ingo still kicked his ass in their heat, but his gut was bulging through his loose tee shirt. If there's one thing Floyd was not modest and diffident about, it was his build, and his six pack was actually more impressive in his 40s than when he was competing. Years later, Ingo took up marathon running, then Patterson kicked his ass at that. It's a bitter irony that they died at the ages they did, because of the level of fitness both achieved during middle age. Just goes to show that there's no correlation between fitness and health.

 

I like when he talks about Hearns pulling out of their fight (first time) over a broken finger. Hagler says "He pulls out over a broken pinky? Man for 10 million dollars i would cut that damn thing off"

When asked after the Hearns fight if he was hurt in that first round. "Na just made me Madder!!:twisted:"

 

Marciano, Hagler, Basilio, Mayweather, Hopkins, and Glen Johnson all train/trained as hard or harder than anyone who ever lived. None of them have showed up out of shape in a fight of theirs that I've seen.

 

Bruce Curry's unlikely late career title run was fueled by maniacal training. By that stage of his life, he was no longer playing with a full deck, and that manifested itself in ways like lifting weights at the gym at two in the morning. Jesse Reid was his trainer, and tried to get Bruce to ease off, to no avail. Curry tried to will himself to victory when he got dethroned by Billy Costello, stood up to obscene punishment for nine rounds, and kept on coming, but Billy's technique was vastly superior, and it became apparent that Bruce was also over trained and depleted.

 

The same is true for Naseem Hamed, he hated training and didnt try hard apparently, his training camps for a fight before he got with Steward and Suarez would reported last only about 3 or 4 weeks.

 

Awesome :rofl:rofl:rofl

 

Why I love Hagler!

Where the hell is the likes of him, or Duran or Dempsey or Tyson, today?

 

In regards to the topic, the answer is of course Timmy Witherspoon.

 

Nigel Benn's roadwork, looked like something Paula Raddcliffe would be doing.

 

Incredible story.

 

I've heard that Roy Jones Father, used to hammer nails into a wooden plank which spanned across the ring. And he would make Roy Jones duck up and do punching drills......

He would also try to hit Roy Jones with Metal bars, to improve his defence.

Vasil Jirov's old trainer from the old soviet Union or some ****. Used to set dogs on him and he would have to fight them off. Also he would be taken out into Freezin cold sea, and dropped off a miles from land and told to swim back.........

All to build mental strength and toughness.

 

Dempsey and Roy did something similar..dempsey would go into a cage that was about 4 feet high...he would then stay in a full squat and shadow box for 20 mintues..insane...jones dad use to make him go into a room with boards that had nails sticking down..it was also very low..and he would have to stay in a squal and shadow box...of coure ifh e stood up..he would hit a nail. two differences...jack didnt have nails..but then again..jack did this training basically to himself..where as roy needed his dad to do it...and he hated his dad for it...and after his dad stopped training him, he no longer did that.

 

There really is no way to know.

Guys like Holyfield, Marciano, Hagler, Hopkins, Mayweather, Jones, Mosley, etc...are all known to work really, really hard in the gym.