LOS ANGELES – What’s known about and what’s seen from Terence Crawford as a boxer is spectacular.
One of only three active double-undisputed world champions. The ability to jab and throw power punches with both hands. Forty fights, 40 victories, 31 knockouts. And a hellacious nasty streak that fuels his eagerness to finish wounded opponents.
As he has transformed to his mid-30s, Crawford, 36, has opted to ensure he’s performing at his athletic peak, so he’s aligned for the past three fights with expert conditioning and supplement guru Victor Conte to take his preparation to the next level.
As Crawford now moves up in weight for Saturday’s World Boxing Association junior-middleweight title fight against new champion Israil Madrimov of Uzbekistan at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles (DAZN, PPV.com), his fitness and conditioning capacity are essential elements he’ll lean heavily upon in seeking to further his legacy.
From what Conte reports, the results are sublime.
“Since I’ve been working with Terence – and this is the third fight – from the data and blood data we’ve collected, this is the best shape we’ve ever seen him,” Conte said. “I would classify it as super-human.”
While maintaining contact with Conte, Crawford trains in the rarefied elevation of Colorado Springs, Colo, at 6,700 feet above sea level. The impact of that training is seen basically in the superb fitness Crawford has long shown in defeating champions including Errol Spence Jr., Shawn Porter, Kell Brook and more.
Crawford broke camp in Colorado Springs on July 25, departing for a hometown appearance in Nebraska before arriving in Los Angeles early this week.
Coming back to sea level alters an athlete’s system, making some fitness readings “haywire and confused,” Conte says, so they’ve worked this week to restore the levels that were seen in Colorado.
“You hit the rebound and your (figures and performance) climb back up to 8, 9, 10, 11 … all the benefits of him training in Colorado Springs to getting the peak (performance). It’s all been timed perfectly,” Conte said. “He’s going to get the maximum benefit.”
Upon Crawford’s time in Los Angeles, Conte said, Crawford’s equipped with something called an “oxy mask” that allows him to achieve what Conte calls super-oxygenation.
It’s best to let Conte explain this scientific process.
“So you breathe 20.9 per cent oxygen when you’re breathing at sea level. Terence is breathing, through an open-designed mask, 68 per cent oxygen,” Conte said. “What happens is, your red blood cells have hemoglobin, which are like seats on a bus. You fill those up, and that transports nutrients and oxygen to your muscle tissue. Your blood is 55 per cent plasma or liquid and 45 per cent red blood cells. So when you fill up all the seats with oxygen on the red blood cells, it spills onto the plasma and liquid portion – that’s called super-oxygenation.
“So if you ask, ‘Where do you take him to get him higher than sea level for recovery?’ Well, you do it with equipment.”
Conte has diligently worked to resurrect his career from the depths of a federal law enforcement raid 21 years ago on his infamous BALCO facility in the Bay Area that designed steroids and counted a litany of athletic greats including Olympic sprinters Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, boxing champion Shane Mosley, baseball’s home-run king Barry Bonds and others as clients.
Since serving four months in a minimum-security federal prison, Conte has emerged turning over a new leaf with a new line of legal conditioning, sleep-aid and recovery supplements under his new wildly successful company SNAC, with connections to several former, current or recent boxing champions like Devin Haney, Demetrius Andrade and Claressa Shields.
Through super-oxygenation, Conte says Crawford has “got the most powerful oxygen-concentrated makeup possible up in his (hotel) room.” The ‘oxy mask” is equipped with a diffuser, Conte explains, that takes the richer oxygen and “injects it up his nostril and in his mouth. You take in 68 per cent oxygen and exhale out the metabolic waste products – lactic acid, ammonia, carbon dioxide. What we do is flush his system of these waste products.”
At Thursday’s news conference, Crawford addressed his superb fitness.
“I feel I’ll be stronger. I’ll be energized. I won’t have to lose the extra seven pounds, so it’s going to be less stress on my body,” Crawford said. “I’m ready. I’m going to be feeling great. I’m good right now.”
The astounding effects of Crawford’s preparation have been seen in blood testing and active sensors of Crawford markers on his heart rate, blood flow rate, breath frequency, hydration and blood-oxygen saturation.
Crawford’s heart rate is one-third slower than the average person and his breath rate while resting is incredibly impressive.
“What I like is how calm he is, never seen him so relaxed,” Conte said. “When he comes back between rounds, his heart rate is going to drop very quickly. Each round he goes back out, he’s fresh. He’s a very scientifically prepared boxer.
“The key is in the training and the recovery and you’ve got to allow adequate recovery time. That all comes from these gauges … we’re bringing science to it. This is not old-school boxing.”
Crawford’s weight cut for Friday morning’s weigh-in will be simple, Conte assured.
“It’s like landing a 747 perfectly…easiest cut he’s ever made. This is what science does … we will land perfectly on that scale,” Conte said.
“Terence may be the most scientifically prepared boxer in the history of the sport.”
The expertise will be imperative should Crawford conclude the attention to preparation by impressively defeating Madrimov, raising the likelihood of a later showdown against recently undisputed super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
Conte says Crawford can get to 168 pounds in three months.
“They would need three months to promote the fight, so there’s plenty of time to do it,” Conte said. “He has a team of very smart people around him, to increase the calories and all that …
“ … You can develop type-2B fast-twitch muscle fiber. That’s where explosive power and speed come from, not from tempo running distance. It’s from sprint-interval training and weightlifting.”
First comes Madrimov.
“That’s his plan (Canelo), but this is the total focus now,” Conte said. “You don’t talk about Step B until you’ve conquered Step A.
“Trust me, Terence is the boss. He gives me the ability to proceed. He’s a very bright guy who understands how things work, and he’s all in. He’s been great to work with because he listens, he gets it, he’s smart.”
