In Juan Diaz's training diary, the boxer offers an overview of his preparations -- both on a personal and professional level -- for his July 31 rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez. Diaz, who also just finished law school, offers intimate details of his training camp in Houston and opens the doors to his gym for a look at his intense daily routine.
I am staying in Houston -- I am doing all my training here. I never really travel out of the state to train. I get up at 5:30 in the morning and I get on the StairMaster. I don't run; I do the StairMaster for 5.5 miles every day, then I lift weights for about another hour or 45 minutes, and then I swim for an hour -- that's part of my cardio. That's my morning workout, from 5:30 to 9:00. And then I get some breakfast and I am back in the gym at 11:30 until about 1:30, when I do all the boxing workout.
Right now, I have my No. 1 trainer, Ronnie Shields, with me; my secondary trainer is Derwin Richards; and then I have my strength and conditioning coach, Brian Caldwell. My brother, Jose Diaz, is in the corner every day making sure water bottles are filled and whatever else we need -- he gets everything ready. He is the one that gets everything organized.
Right now, I have three sparring partners. One is Lanard Lane; he is a 147-pounder, undefeated. Then we have Jose Renteria, an undefeated lightweight. And then there's David Torres from Chicago.
My weight has not been an issue. Actually, I am having trouble keeping it on. I train so hard and I burn so many calories every day that I have to eat constantly. Right now, I weigh about 138 pounds. At one point, I went down to 136. That was just too low, because I'm doing all the heavy sparring right now and I need a little more fat to burn.
I have an apartment where I'm living right now, and I'm by myself. I try to focus strictly on the fight. My brother takes care of all the bills, he takes care of all the business calls I get, he's the one in charge of all that. After the training is over, I go to my place and try to relax, watch TV and have nobody bother me. If I want to take a nap, I take a nap. Basically, I call it a "lockdown" -- I just train, eat right and focus on the fight.
I had an exam coming up, but I'm concentrating on the fight right now. I decided not to take the exam. I pushed it back and left it for another time. My main concern and priority is the fight.
In this fight, I'm definitely going to do some of the things I was doing in the first fight that were working for me. [Diaz lost to Marquez in a ninth-round TKO in February 2009.] I'm not going to leave it to luck this time. The only thing that's going to change is that I'm going to be a little bit smarter this time -- concentrate and focus a little bit more on the punches I throw and not go out round after round throwing punches like crazy.
I have already been in training camp for six weeks and I have four more to go. All in all, I'm excited and I'm ready to show the world everything I've been working on.
I am staying in Houston -- I am doing all my training here. I never really travel out of the state to train. I get up at 5:30 in the morning and I get on the StairMaster. I don't run; I do the StairMaster for 5.5 miles every day, then I lift weights for about another hour or 45 minutes, and then I swim for an hour -- that's part of my cardio. That's my morning workout, from 5:30 to 9:00. And then I get some breakfast and I am back in the gym at 11:30 until about 1:30, when I do all the boxing workout.
Right now, I have my No. 1 trainer, Ronnie Shields, with me; my secondary trainer is Derwin Richards; and then I have my strength and conditioning coach, Brian Caldwell. My brother, Jose Diaz, is in the corner every day making sure water bottles are filled and whatever else we need -- he gets everything ready. He is the one that gets everything organized.
Right now, I have three sparring partners. One is Lanard Lane; he is a 147-pounder, undefeated. Then we have Jose Renteria, an undefeated lightweight. And then there's David Torres from Chicago.
My weight has not been an issue. Actually, I am having trouble keeping it on. I train so hard and I burn so many calories every day that I have to eat constantly. Right now, I weigh about 138 pounds. At one point, I went down to 136. That was just too low, because I'm doing all the heavy sparring right now and I need a little more fat to burn.
I have an apartment where I'm living right now, and I'm by myself. I try to focus strictly on the fight. My brother takes care of all the bills, he takes care of all the business calls I get, he's the one in charge of all that. After the training is over, I go to my place and try to relax, watch TV and have nobody bother me. If I want to take a nap, I take a nap. Basically, I call it a "lockdown" -- I just train, eat right and focus on the fight.
I had an exam coming up, but I'm concentrating on the fight right now. I decided not to take the exam. I pushed it back and left it for another time. My main concern and priority is the fight.
In this fight, I'm definitely going to do some of the things I was doing in the first fight that were working for me. [Diaz lost to Marquez in a ninth-round TKO in February 2009.] I'm not going to leave it to luck this time. The only thing that's going to change is that I'm going to be a little bit smarter this time -- concentrate and focus a little bit more on the punches I throw and not go out round after round throwing punches like crazy.
I have already been in training camp for six weeks and I have four more to go. All in all, I'm excited and I'm ready to show the world everything I've been working on.
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