Kayes has overseen Hatton's nutrition and weights sessions for eight fights and estimates his strength has increased 10-15% every time. Everyone who saw him in the run-up to the Tsyzu fight was amazed by the muscularity that was evident even on his ghost white frame. He had what is known as bodybuilding circles on his back- where the muscles were so highly developed and lean that they fanned out from his spine across both sides of his back in the shape of a christmas tree. Hatton went into camp for the Tsyzu fight 14 weeks out instead of the normal 12 and things went so well he had to ease up towards the end to make sure he didn't overcook his preparation. "From a mental point of view the whole camp was so much more excited about it," says Kayes. "He was so far in advance I didn't want him too lose too much weight. He was having four flapjacks a day and in his last week before the fight I told him he could have a chinese meal." Besides lifting weights, Hatton was training ferociously on his fitness and skills with graham. The aspect of hsi training, which Muscle and fitness profiled in 2003, consists of three main elements: bar jumping, sparring and body bag workouts. Hatton is expected to vault the bar, which is four feet high and made of iron, 42 times in 1 minute. When he finishes he leaps into the ring to pound the body bag, a huge leather waistcoat with eight inches of foam padding worn by Graham, for another minute, which enables Hatton to combine punching and movement in a way traditional heavybag workouts don't. " It's like punching a pillow" says hatton. "An absolute killer". After that he jumps on the bar foranother minute by the end of which, he's trained for three mintes of non-stop-the length a round lasts in boxing. He rest for a minute, does three minutes of sparring then rests for another minute. Then he returns to the body bag and the bar except that because he trained for two of the three minutes on the bar last time, this time he trains for two of the three minutes on the bag. So it goes on. He increase sthe number of rounds as his fitness levels increase closer to the figh, aiming to finsh with one gruelling 15-round session. "This way i have three in the bag" says Hatton. He has three hard ring days on Monday Wendnesday and Friday with trainer Billy Graham and two easy days on tuesday and Thursday. "I'm big on recovery' says graham. "The heart is a muscle. If you work it to the extreme every day it never gets a chance to recover." He also runs six miles a night most nights of the week. WWith teh entire camp in overdrive for the Tsyzu fight, Hatton weighed in at 4:00pm on Friday at 139lbs. Tsyzu was slightly over it and had to shed some ounces. By the following morning, hatton weighted 149lbs. By the time he steppd into the ring in the early hours of sunday morning, the time staged to suit American TV audiences, he was up to 156 pounds. "We filled himw ith fluids and Glycogen" sayes Kayes. What followed was one of the most coppelling world title fights in the UK. It was relentless and brutal, swinging one way to another until Tsyzu, behind on points, failed to come out for the final round. Although Hatton's victory has forced some in the boxing fraternity to rethink their attitude towards bodybuilding, kayes is still scathing obove the level of ignorance. "No other fighters in England weigt train properly" says Kayes. "The reason they don't do it is becaus etheyd on't have a progressive trainer like Billy Graham. Graham is so convinced of the benefits that he won't train anyone who refuses to do weights. All the ffighters in the phoenix camp camp, which includes Middle weight prospects Paul Smith and Pat Maxwell, super featherweights Steve Ball and Michael Gomez, light middleweight Matthew Macklin and Ricky's brother Matthew, weight train under Kayes' supervision. "Kerry takes weight off my mind because of the way he trains them and helps them make weight" says Graham. "Some other fighters trainw ith weights but what tehy do is absolutely pathetic". I think the penny is dropping slowly. With boxing everything is old fashioned". Once the blinkers come off, the fighters like the results. "Weight training becomes seductive to the fighter because they see themselves getting more muscular," says Graham. "Sometimes they have to take the word that they are improving but with weight training they can see the difference." The longer others stay in the dark the easier it will be for Hatton to retain his world title. The outlook has never been brighter for the Hitmanm whose promoter Frank Warren, has a deal with ITV that has brought boxing back to the masses. Now oppurtunities await Hatton and his sport. Perhaps they finally beckon, too, for modern training methods "People have to start taking weight trainign more seriously now" says Graham. M@F i didnt write this so dont blame me for the spelling.
I have a fight coming up in July and this is one of my regular workout routines: :deal( 3 min rds, 30 sec rest) - 10 min dynamic warm-up - 2 rds shadow boxing, focusing on head movement and punching form - 3 rds heavy bag, focusing on punch output and movement - 2 rds slip/up and under/punch (rope 5 ft above ground) - 3 rds double end bag, focusing on accuracy, slipping, movement, and punch output - 2 rds speed bag, focusing on punch output. - 3 rds jump rope (no rest) - 2 rds of 10 burpees and 30 secs shadow boxing (as many sets as possible, I normally get 3 sets per rd and sometimes a little more) - 3-4 mile run (approx 30 mins) - 10-15 min stretch. NOTE: I wear my mouthpiece for the whole workout, except during the run. My reasoning is too make fighting and breathing with the piece easier. Questions, comments....let me know:thumbsup
I heard a roy jones jr one but i think its bull****. Ill post anyway. "After several rounds of warming up (and press ups) he did 12 rounds of boxing (pads/sparring/bags). Roy did 4 minute rounds all the time and then did 16 minutes each on speedball and floor-to-ceiling ball. This was followed by 1200 reps on the abs (he had gradually increased total ammount of reps on the abs over time) and 16 minutes of skipping before a stretch. He also ran 5 miles in the morning followed by squats. He played basketball after lunch. It took up 6-7 hours of his day. It is assumed that he always used that routine since splitting with his father. Roy ate fruit for breakfast, chicken salad for lunch with some vegetables and pasta. He had a protein dinner which was usually some more chicken. He had never in his life had any alcohol or drug in him at all. When his father trained him he was also banned from womanising and even masturbation! (Lolwut?) Apparently the only time he ever used weights to train his upper body was for the Ruiz fight, and that was the only time he ever worked with Don King too. He had promised himself never to use weights to train his upper body and also had promised himself never to work with Don King, but the Ruiz fight was a one-off and he considered it career-defining at the time."
I couldnt find a mention of squats. I did see a clip of Hatton doing them. Probably for a later fight.
hmm these routines could be bull**** for all we know , theres never a reliable source for any posted so until then i wouldnt read into any of them
Mike Tyson's regimen sounds ridiculous to me......that's crazy work. I'd love to see the training plan of Sergio Martinez or Juan Manuel Marquez. I can dream right..
Great stuff this. Very interesting texts about Hatton especially. Some thoughts: Eubank's training seemed a bit light to me. Was it camp? That Tyson trained like that seven days a week, if only in camp, doesn't really seem plausible. I know he had a brutal regimen, but no rest for weeks? Did Ali really only do floor exercises for the core?
When a training regimen starts to seem a bit superhuman, especially with fighters, I tend to take it with a grain of salt; the stuff we hear about Rocky Marciano is a prime example. What's claimed about him just doesn't stand up to scrutiny, especially when the sources for most of the claims are people close to him - reporters and less biased witnesses report a guy who was devoted to training and worked hard, but the idea he was doing more roadwork than a marathoner on top of sparring, bag work and calisthenics seems unlikely. Bruce Lee is another example. Tyson was certainly in great shape in his prime, but I question some of those numbers. I can see Ali only doing floor exercises and maybe medicine ball work for his core; most of his training was in the 60s and 70s, all they knew back then were sit-ups and leg raises. Still, whatever he did seemed to work fine - Ken Norton said hitting Ali was like hitting a sack of concrete
