By Miguel Rivera
Middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been training like never before. Next Saturday he challenges WBC middleweight champion Sebastian Zbik at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The 25-year-old boxer is training at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood with a veteran team comprised of trainer Freddie Roach and conditioning coach Alex Ariza.
For nearly two months, two to three times per week, Julio gets up at 6 am to run. After breakfast, he checks information online and answers emails. At noon he comes to the gym where he spends at least two hours, starting with 30 minutes of cardio and then strength and a half hour with no boxing exercises. After lunch, he spends a couple of hours studying videos of his opponent. He goes to bed between 8 and 9 pm.
"Forget the term surrender. I want to be champion and I'm training like never before. It's very hard training, where every day is different. Strength work, running, sparring in the gym and occasionally I even swim. It's a very comprehensive training system that we have. It's very difficult with very hard exercises, very hard," said Chavez Jr.