Weirdest Boxing Training Routines
We’ve all seen Rocky drinking pints of eggs during the course of his training, but sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction! From chasing chickens to underwater boxing, we’ve been seeking out the weirdest ways that boxers have trained for their fights.
Vasyl Lomachenko
In terms of mental agility, Lomachenko has some crazy routines that he created. While we know that boxing relies on hand eye coordination, he’s one of the only boxers that we’ve seen creating training routines quite like this. From stacking up dominoes to hitting numbers on a wall, this fighter is all about understanding the mentality behind the fight.
On the physical side of things, Lomachenko also practices walking on his hands and doing flips as part of his training. This shows crazy commitment to both sides of the training experience, which created a really well rounded boxer.
Vassiliy Jirov
While not exactly a Hall of Fame fighter, Jirov had some pretty unconventional training routines. One involved his trainer setting a dog on him and allowing it to chase him down a hall. Jirov would have to improve his speed in order to get to the end of the hall and close the door before the dog could catch him.
We’d imagine that this kind of motivation would have anyone running a lot quicker! His trainer would also reportedly take him out on a boat on a lake before throwing the fighter out. This was well and truly a case of sink or swim, especially in those freezing cold waters! It’s safe to say that this is one of the most hardcore trainers we’ve ever heard of.
Fedor Emelianenko
Emelianenko is actually an MMA fighter but his weird training move has been used by many boxers too. We’ve all heard of shadow boxing, but how about shadow boxing while dizzy? In this bizarre training routine, the fighters spin around before shadow boxing, which entirely ruins their coordination.
The idea behind this training is that boxers are training themselves to have better equilibrium and are able to recover more quickly from being knocked off balance. The jury is out on whether or not this actually works, but we’d love to see some of the greats trying out this technique.
Evander Holyfield
To work on his coordination and agility, it was reported that Holyfield took ballet lessons. When questioned about the practice, he said that the ballet, and the agility it brought, gave him the edge over bigger fighters.
We’ve seen the underdog coming up to overthrow their opponent with ease when they are faster, but we don’t often hear about fighters doing ballet to improve upon it.
Holyfield seemed completely unfazed by any questions about the ballet, as to him it’s just another way to hone his skills.
These fighters have managed to up their game with weird training routines, though we can’t say we’d like to try them out for ourselves. There are many more rumours out there about other fighters too, which Rocky couldn’t dream of competing with.
