Has anyone ever found any sources of information that give clues as to how he trained and what his diet usually consisted of?
Run, bag, spar and probably some random niche thing like dumbbell shadow boxing that contributed to like 5% of his training and added 0… he had a lot of stamina so he probably just ran more then most guys or sparred more or was very calm in the ring… questions about boxers training is curious to me? unless it’s about quantity of sparring rounds or something like that? a boxer is usually built the same way he learns to punch on the bag and shadow boxing, he learns to defend himself piece by piece then he spars that is it ideally. A keen observer could make themselves a very good boxer with limited instruction because When and Why is much more important then HOW Medina outboxed plenty of guys who were in better shape, more fundamental or stronger because he had more experience actually boxing and strengthening his most important muscle… his imagination… Yes boxers also build wind with some long distance cardio with some sprinting in there BUT neither is overall useful if you’re not calm or loose and is a tier down for increasing your ability to fight a long time compared to sparring more and being loose it is not essential to “do your road work bro” ideally a boxer learns to fight, runs to keep the weight down / build discipline and spends all his time sparring or ya know boxing look at Holmes, Toney, JCC Snr eventually it was just spar and run or spar and weights or spar and spar depending who you asked… throw in some lifting or body weight stuff to keep yourself strong but that’s not really a “boxing” training method per say but something you’d go elsewhere for like who’d ask a boxing trainer about strength training?lol They’d tell you go do some push ups etc at the end of your workout and call it a day that or he’d wisely direct you to the QUALFIED person the S&C guy ya know?(though they’re more like drug dealers and the “conditioning part” has been handled for decades by boxing guys way better lol) I remember all the threads “How did Cleveland Williams train?” Brother if you want to look like CW just lift some weights and stop looking for his “secret” it might be just genes and labour but his build isn’t anything crazy just ask Chat GPT to build you a bodybuilding program and eat more you’ll get there. Petty rant over….
And a chocolate milkshake to dip the fries in, also a burger with bacon and BBQ on it… I’m hungry as hell right now Mandela.
Whatever his old lady was cooking up. As far as training, it seems roping and riding took precedence. Per @Journeyman92 , Jess was very relaxed in the ring, probably due to the innate confidence his immense size brought and the fact he was routinely handling 1200 pound animals... or he was just wired that way. He obviously had some boxing specific training as he had a decent jab for his era.
OK, so I got a little curious and dug into some old newspaper reports... For the Johnson bout it was reported Jess did 5-6 miles of roadwork a morning , sometimes being described as a walk, sometimes a run. In the afternoon "he worked at his training machines, wrestled and boxed fourteen rounds with his sparring partners" one being Jim Savage, another Tex O'Roarke. Interestingly, Willard contends that the Johnson bout would likely be long and end to his benefit with a right hand, a punch which he was forbidden from throwing in sparring because it was deemed so dangerous. He also had promised Mrs. Willard that the Johnson fight, should he win, would be his final fight.
