Naseem Hamed never did Roadwork and believed his 25 rounds of sparring was sufficient preperation, Who else got away with not doing there roadwork.
James Toney also believes that sparring is all you have to do to prepare for a fight, so he just does that.
That seems to make sense to me. Why run like a marathoner when you are only going to be fighting for three minute bursts at a time? There are other ways to get your cardiovascular training in without all of the pounding of doing roadwork. And as far as strenthening and conditioning the leg muscles, there are many other options as well; even intense stair climbing/stair stepper will do the job.
Ricky Hatton didn't do a lot of running. Ali: "These hard fights aren't won in the ring. They're won on the road."
Running is one of the best/simplest ways to impact stamina. That's why it's so popular. But other guys have worked in alternative ways. Didn't Marciano do more walking than running?
There's plenty of ways to improve stamina, although jogging/running is still popular. The way Evander ran, was to jog for a spell, then sprint for 10 seconds or so, jog a bit more, sprint again. Almost like the HIT training method some athletes use today. Your body has to adjust to intensity levels constantly, as opposed to merely running at the same pace, to which the body can adapt remarkably quickly. Marciano indeed walked a lot, but he walked between fights as well. It was not just during training. According to Lou Duva, he walked with Rocky one time and Rocky kept bending down, picking up a pebble and throwing it into a nearby stream. Apparently, this was deliberately done to make things just that bit tougher on himself. I think as time goes by, you will see less and less boxers doing traditional roadwork, just like weights have replaced chopping wood. There will be better ways of improving stamina. To get back to the topic, I can't think of any legends that neglected their roadwork.
yes but james toney also considered going to burger king a couple of times a week essential training.
