As fans may have read, Eddie Hearn enjoyed a good chat with Floyd Mayweather this week, the promoter and the former multi-weight champ and self-proclaimed “T.B.E” (you know what it stands for!), discussing all sorts of things. But the stuff Hearn revealed Mayweather revealed to him about the training ethic he had when he was fighting really does prove interesting.
Speaking once again with IFL TV, Hearn spoke about the quite amazing routine Floyd adopted and stuck to so as to ensure he was always, always in peak and prime physical condition each and every time he stepped into the ring. As Hearn said, “When did you ever see Floyd tired in a fight?” The answer is never, and no wonder when we learn how hard he pushed himself in training, in sparring, and whilst doing roadwork.
“I said to Floyd last night, ‘wow, Shakur [Stevenson] sparred 14, 4-minute rounds.’ He [Floyd] said, when he used to spar, his first round would be nine minutes. And after that, every round would be six minutes,” Hearn said. “I asked him to tell me about his roadwork, and he said he would run five to seven miles every day – sometimes fast, sometimes slow. And I just think it’s interesting how the game’s evolved and how conditioning’s evolved. But I don’t think – and some of the new-age tech guys will disagree with me – you can substitute roadwork. Over time, tell me a fighter than hasn’t run, that hasn’t put the miles in.”
It’s true Mayweather was a gym rat and a man who was dedicated to roadwork, with Mayweather often putting his miles in during the early morning hours, when most folks were fast asleep. Floyd has his critics, people who say he “cherry-picked” opponents and plenty of people who disagree with Mayweather’s “T.B.E” claim. But nobody, as in nobody, could ever say Mayweather was not always in superb shape, that he didn’t work his ass off in the gym and on the road. And Mayweather kept this incredible regime up for years and years.
When Mayweather says he’s “T.B.E,” maybe, just maybe, he can lay claim to being THE best-conditioned boxer ever (after all, as great as they surely were, we saw legends like Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Julio Cesar Chavez, Oscar De La Hoya, Evander Holyfield, and so many others tired and really having to dig deep in fights, but not Mayweather). Also a defensive master, Mayweather showed us all how to enjoy a long career and get out healthy at the end of it. Hard work and dedication were the two words Mayweather used as his mantra, and he sure did live the life.
Read the full article here
