What stories have you heard about boxers using drastic measures to lose weight?

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by mark ant, Oct 21, 2021.



  1. mark ant

    mark ant Canelo was never athletic Full Member

    36,654
    16,430
    May 4, 2017
    What stories have you heard, or have actually witnessed when some boxers have/had done in sheer desperation to try and make fighting weight?
    Khaosai Galaxy only ate one meal a day to make weight. Eusabio Pedroza kept a pebble in his mouth to provide moisture in his mouth as he couldn`t drink any liquid before his weigh in to fight featherweight challenger Barry McGuigan.



     
  2. janitor

    janitor VIP Member Full Member

    69,971
    23,858
    Feb 15, 2006
    Barbados Joe Walcott used to shovel coal in a boiler room wearing oil skins.

    In the days before bulking up became a thing, fighters sometimes had to gain weight to fight in a given weight class. Henry Armstrong used to drink liters of water before his welterweight weigh ins.
     
    Tonto62, sasto and fortissimus like this.
  3. Nonito Smoak

    Nonito Smoak Ioka>Lomo, sorry my dudes Full Member

    53,089
    6,658
    Sep 8, 2010
    Chavez Jr... smoking weed and lifting some weights in his living room.

    Oh, to "make weight," oh nevermind.
     
  4. MixedMartialLaw

    MixedMartialLaw combat sports enthusiast Full Member

    814
    1,058
    Jun 30, 2021
    Depending on how big the meal was that's not too crazy. One meal a day is actually a pretty popular diet trend now. Probably simulates more how humans ate for tens of thousands of years before we came into the standard breakfast, lunch, dinner routine.
     
  5. Bulldog24

    Bulldog24 Boxing Junkie Full Member

    11,057
    3,792
    Aug 2, 2013
    Ronnie Davies says Chris Eubank passed out after weighing in for his first fight with Watson. The weigh-in was only a few hours before fight time.
     
    Journeyman92 likes this.
  6. Bulldog24

    Bulldog24 Boxing Junkie Full Member

    11,057
    3,792
    Aug 2, 2013
    I lost 19lb in four days. That was through total abstinence of food and water and full, exhausting training at the same time. There is nothing harder than to train when you have nothing in your stomach - you retch, you feel faint, you are stretching yourself to the limit. When you dry out to that extreme, it is difficult to even blink, your eyes are so dehydrated. I had to periodically plunge my head into a sink of water to sooth the dryness. Four days without food or water makes you retch at your own breath. I used to even have the complimentary fruit bowls removed from my hotel rooms, because just the smell of an apple or orange was torture. The evening before the fight, John Regan was with me in my room at The Coachhouse and I wanted to get a bag off the floor. I couldn't face picking it up, so I asked John to help me. Then I stood up and blacked out.
    Eubank Sr
     
    sasto, Reinhardt and mark ant like this.
  7. Journeyman92

    Journeyman92 I’m become seeker of milk Full Member

    12,625
    13,279
    Sep 22, 2021
    Was it not Sot Chatilda who wen't on a week fast at the start of camp?
     
    mark ant likes this.
  8. Bulldog24

    Bulldog24 Boxing Junkie Full Member

    11,057
    3,792
    Aug 2, 2013
    This content is protected
     
  9. Rafaman

    Rafaman Active Member Full Member

    1,009
    428
    Jun 26, 2015
    Hussein Hussein. He fought Jorge Arce and was a tough fighter. I know someone from his camp. The week of the fight in a single day he would get 1 piece of meat no bigger than his palm. Cut that in 3 pieces , and have 1 piece for breakfast, lunch and dinner and allow himself one piece of fruit for the entire day.
     
    NoNeck and Journeyman92 like this.
  10. AwardedSteak863

    AwardedSteak863 Boxing Addict Full Member

    4,873
    8,524
    Aug 16, 2018
    So I never saw a lot of extreme measures taking at the gyms I belong to for boxing because the weight cutting thing was somewhat frowned upon by the old boxing trainers but then again so was weight lifting back in those days.

    The gym I go to right now is mostly MMA guys with wrestling backgrounds and I have seen guys go from 210 to 170 in about three weeks and then be 190 when they enter the cage on fight night. This particular fighter suffered like hell on fight week with a combination of sauna and starvation. It worked for awhile but then he got crushed in a fight and moved up to the next weight class.

    As for fighters that I have read about, Jake Lamotta describes the suffering of making weight in his book and James Toney has been vocal about his drastic weight cutting. Both of those fighters have themselves to blame for their lifestyle choices for the most part.
     
  11. Journeyman92

    Journeyman92 I’m become seeker of milk Full Member

    12,625
    13,279
    Sep 22, 2021
    Excellent post.

    Really boxing started seeing scary weight cutting when the strength and conditioning guys came onto the scene.

    Those guys came from wrestling backgrounds mostly from what I have heard anyways.
     
  12. Reinhardt

    Reinhardt Boxing Junkie Full Member

    11,702
    14,938
    Oct 4, 2016
    I remember reading where Duran was on an I.V. drip so he wouldn't eat to make weight for the second Leonard fight and I believe the same story had James Toney doing the same thing before the Jones fight.
     
  13. salsanchezfan

    salsanchezfan Boxing Junkie Full Member

    14,985
    9,321
    Aug 22, 2004
    I read once that Khaosai Galaxy had a daily routine of eating only one meal a day in order to keep his weight in check, especially between fights.
     
  14. Mike_b

    Mike_b Well-Known Member Full Member

    2,480
    2,007
    Jul 9, 2020
    This is MMA but nevertheless the profiled fighter lost 20 lbs in 24 hours:
    This content is protected

    They used a combo of locking him in, dragging him in, and forcing him to do it. Lord knows what kind of damage he had in his kidneys cause of this. Extremely graphic.
     
    sasto likes this.
  15. Pepsi Dioxide

    Pepsi Dioxide Boxing Addict Full Member

    4,908
    6,151
    Oct 22, 2020
    On the Chavez vs Canelo broadcast didn't they say Chavez had to restrict himself to like 1000 calories for the week to make weight? Pretty extreme and foolish.