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Article On Zab Judah Working With Victor Conte
By Steve Kim
As he prepares for his junior welterweight unification showdown on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, IBF titlist Zab Judah believes that- and yes, get ready for a “cliché alert”- he is indeed in the best shape of his life coming into this bout against WBA beltholder, Amir Khan. No, seriously, this time he means it.
"I must say," Judah stated to Maxboxing last week from Las Vegas, "I am in the best shape of my career. It’s going to be phenomenal. People always say things about breathing and ’Zab Judah can’t make it past six rounds’ but I think if the fight permits itself to go 12 rounds, after 12 rounds, I’ll be looking for another six."
In the past, Judah has been like a drag racing vehicle, capable of quick, explosive starts but not built for the long haul. He now believes he is capable of boxing effectively for long distances. Much of it has to do with his consultation of noted conditioning and nutritional guru Victor Conte.
"Victor’s a very smart guy; he’s a very underestimated man. I think we play together as two great people. We are the same kinda person with some past histories of things; people just judge on that alone," said Judah, referencing their checkered pasts. "His character as a person, that’s not who he is [anymore]. He’s a different kinda guy and I’m very pleased to be working with Victor and the man has been nothing but a great help to me and everything like that. He’s a legit, honest guy."
When you ask Judah what he knew about Conte- who will forever be associated as the founder of BALCO and being the chemical mastermind in reshaping sports history through the use of “the clear” and “the cream”- he says, "Well, the first thing you know about Victor is what everyone else knows about him, the different kind of scandals he’s been through but Zab Judah as a person, I’ve been through a lot in my life. I’m pretty sure if you Googled me, you’re not going to see a choirboy come up." As he says this, he laughs heartily and yes, there was this particularly infamous dice game back in South Florida a few years ago. "So I’ve learned from my own experiences never to judge a person and always just to give a guy a shot. I reached out to Victor and like I said, everything’s been great. I feel like a million bucks.
"All I want is what every fighter should do, put your arm out and be willing to take the test."
It’s ironic he says this, because it was Judah, not Floyd Mayweather, who first broached the subject of having more comprehensive testing for boxing in light of the growing use of illegal performance enhancing substances that have become prevalent in all sports. Back a few years ago, as he was slated to face Shane Mosley- who ironically, was a BALCO disciple during Conte’s darker years- he brought this up, only to be shot down. "Yeah, yeah, I was one of the first guys that kind of heard about it and stumbled over it. Shane was taking illegal substances. Like I said, whether it was true or not, I heard about it and I automatically, back in the day, said to Golden Boy [Promotions], ’Let’s do a drug test.’ People looked at me like, ’What, are you ******ed?’ Ya know what I mean? ’We don’t do that in boxing. Who are you to change the rules?’ People listen to what Floyd says because Floyd, he has the stage right now. He has a great presence in boxing and people do want those big fights. You want those big fights? Take the test.
"I don’t see nothing wrong with what he’s doing. I’m actually behind the movement. Like I said, any fighter, anybody, any commission, I can hold Victor Conte, hug him in one arm and put the other arm out and say, ’Let’s take the test.’"
This brings us to Conte, who’s gone through a renaissance of sorts, much of it through his involvement with the sport of boxing. When asked about his involvement with Judah, he explains, "Zab has been doing both hypoxic training and I created an individualized nutrition program for him, much like I’ve done in the past for others like Nonito Donaire." (For more background on intermittent hypoxic training with Donaire, who is perhaps the most open about his association with Conte, here’s an article from this past December: http://www.doghouseboxing.com/DHB/Kim120410.htm) "Nonito lives there in Vegas and has been working closely with Zab and we did comprehensive testing with Zab and I put together a program to address his specific needs and work with him on his specific goals and so he’s been doing a supplementation program, as well as the hypoxic training and says that he feels great."
So what did Conte know about his newest client?
"To be honest, I knew he was at the very top, elite level and he first came to my attention with what happened with the Shane Mosley fight, when that got postponed when [Zab] got injured. I knew about his relationship with Mike Tyson. I think that Zab today- and I don’t know a lot about his past but I knew he was from Brooklyn and so on- but the one I have interacted with is a great guy. He seems to be at peace with himself, very confident; he’s very intelligent and open to new-school training technologies and I think a part of his decision to embrace some of the things I do has to do with his trust in Nonito Donaire and the success he has had."
According to Conte, Judah is very compliant. To be under his tutelage, there really is no other choice. "I always tell athletes that I work with, it’s not enough to know what to do- you have to do what you know and that’s the bottom line. I can do all sorts of assessments and determine what the specific needs are and what are the appropriate dosages of various nutritional ingredients should be, to help them achieve an optimum balance but it does take religious compliance to get the type of results and performance enhanced goals that these world-class athletes are looking for. So they’ve got to take these things in the morning, take things before training, take things after training, and take things at night before they go to bed and to religiously comply with that is not easy. And a lot of athletes that don’t take it seriously; they’re not going to get the type of results as someone who has religious compliance.
"I believe that Zab has great compliance with the hypoxic training protocols and as well as all the nutritional recommendations I made for him."
Judah regularly texts Conte and sends him photos of his hypoxic training logs. Conte says that while Judah uses supplements from his company, SNAC (an acronym for “Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning”), he has also prescribed for him other nutritional products outside his own brand.
Judah admits, "I think my problem in the past was listening, taking orders. Zab Judah was never too fond of taking orders from people and I think know that I’ve humbled myself and I allow myself to listen more. Let my trainer, Pernell Whitaker, and my uncle, Jimmy, and Morris East, I let these guys take charge. I just listen."
In the past, Judah, wasn’t exactly Jack Lalanne as it related to his diet. He says now with the advice of Conte, his wife Christina cooks healthy meals. You are, as they say, what you eat and now, this vehicle has the right gasoline in its tank. "[Conte] showed me a lot about the body. He showed me things I had no idea about. He showed me about a lot of myths, ’You can do this and do that’. He showed me you can’t [avoid good nutrition] but when you treat the body well...your body is almost like a car. It’s like a high-performance car. I’m like a Bugatti right now, a racing Bugatti and when you put the right fuel and the right oils and the right treatment in the car, it runs at high-level speeds."
As he prepares for his junior welterweight unification showdown on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, IBF titlist Zab Judah believes that- and yes, get ready for a “cliché alert”- he is indeed in the best shape of his life coming into this bout against WBA beltholder, Amir Khan. No, seriously, this time he means it.
"I must say," Judah stated to Maxboxing last week from Las Vegas, "I am in the best shape of my career. It’s going to be phenomenal. People always say things about breathing and ’Zab Judah can’t make it past six rounds’ but I think if the fight permits itself to go 12 rounds, after 12 rounds, I’ll be looking for another six."
In the past, Judah has been like a drag racing vehicle, capable of quick, explosive starts but not built for the long haul. He now believes he is capable of boxing effectively for long distances. Much of it has to do with his consultation of noted conditioning and nutritional guru Victor Conte.
"Victor’s a very smart guy; he’s a very underestimated man. I think we play together as two great people. We are the same kinda person with some past histories of things; people just judge on that alone," said Judah, referencing their checkered pasts. "His character as a person, that’s not who he is [anymore]. He’s a different kinda guy and I’m very pleased to be working with Victor and the man has been nothing but a great help to me and everything like that. He’s a legit, honest guy."
When you ask Judah what he knew about Conte- who will forever be associated as the founder of BALCO and being the chemical mastermind in reshaping sports history through the use of “the clear” and “the cream”- he says, "Well, the first thing you know about Victor is what everyone else knows about him, the different kind of scandals he’s been through but Zab Judah as a person, I’ve been through a lot in my life. I’m pretty sure if you Googled me, you’re not going to see a choirboy come up." As he says this, he laughs heartily and yes, there was this particularly infamous dice game back in South Florida a few years ago. "So I’ve learned from my own experiences never to judge a person and always just to give a guy a shot. I reached out to Victor and like I said, everything’s been great. I feel like a million bucks.
"All I want is what every fighter should do, put your arm out and be willing to take the test."
It’s ironic he says this, because it was Judah, not Floyd Mayweather, who first broached the subject of having more comprehensive testing for boxing in light of the growing use of illegal performance enhancing substances that have become prevalent in all sports. Back a few years ago, as he was slated to face Shane Mosley- who ironically, was a BALCO disciple during Conte’s darker years- he brought this up, only to be shot down. "Yeah, yeah, I was one of the first guys that kind of heard about it and stumbled over it. Shane was taking illegal substances. Like I said, whether it was true or not, I heard about it and I automatically, back in the day, said to Golden Boy [Promotions], ’Let’s do a drug test.’ People looked at me like, ’What, are you ******ed?’ Ya know what I mean? ’We don’t do that in boxing. Who are you to change the rules?’ People listen to what Floyd says because Floyd, he has the stage right now. He has a great presence in boxing and people do want those big fights. You want those big fights? Take the test.
"I don’t see nothing wrong with what he’s doing. I’m actually behind the movement. Like I said, any fighter, anybody, any commission, I can hold Victor Conte, hug him in one arm and put the other arm out and say, ’Let’s take the test.’"
This brings us to Conte, who’s gone through a renaissance of sorts, much of it through his involvement with the sport of boxing. When asked about his involvement with Judah, he explains, "Zab has been doing both hypoxic training and I created an individualized nutrition program for him, much like I’ve done in the past for others like Nonito Donaire." (For more background on intermittent hypoxic training with Donaire, who is perhaps the most open about his association with Conte, here’s an article from this past December: http://www.doghouseboxing.com/DHB/Kim120410.htm) "Nonito lives there in Vegas and has been working closely with Zab and we did comprehensive testing with Zab and I put together a program to address his specific needs and work with him on his specific goals and so he’s been doing a supplementation program, as well as the hypoxic training and says that he feels great."
So what did Conte know about his newest client?
"To be honest, I knew he was at the very top, elite level and he first came to my attention with what happened with the Shane Mosley fight, when that got postponed when [Zab] got injured. I knew about his relationship with Mike Tyson. I think that Zab today- and I don’t know a lot about his past but I knew he was from Brooklyn and so on- but the one I have interacted with is a great guy. He seems to be at peace with himself, very confident; he’s very intelligent and open to new-school training technologies and I think a part of his decision to embrace some of the things I do has to do with his trust in Nonito Donaire and the success he has had."
According to Conte, Judah is very compliant. To be under his tutelage, there really is no other choice. "I always tell athletes that I work with, it’s not enough to know what to do- you have to do what you know and that’s the bottom line. I can do all sorts of assessments and determine what the specific needs are and what are the appropriate dosages of various nutritional ingredients should be, to help them achieve an optimum balance but it does take religious compliance to get the type of results and performance enhanced goals that these world-class athletes are looking for. So they’ve got to take these things in the morning, take things before training, take things after training, and take things at night before they go to bed and to religiously comply with that is not easy. And a lot of athletes that don’t take it seriously; they’re not going to get the type of results as someone who has religious compliance.
"I believe that Zab has great compliance with the hypoxic training protocols and as well as all the nutritional recommendations I made for him."
Judah regularly texts Conte and sends him photos of his hypoxic training logs. Conte says that while Judah uses supplements from his company, SNAC (an acronym for “Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning”), he has also prescribed for him other nutritional products outside his own brand.
Judah admits, "I think my problem in the past was listening, taking orders. Zab Judah was never too fond of taking orders from people and I think know that I’ve humbled myself and I allow myself to listen more. Let my trainer, Pernell Whitaker, and my uncle, Jimmy, and Morris East, I let these guys take charge. I just listen."
In the past, Judah, wasn’t exactly Jack Lalanne as it related to his diet. He says now with the advice of Conte, his wife Christina cooks healthy meals. You are, as they say, what you eat and now, this vehicle has the right gasoline in its tank. "[Conte] showed me a lot about the body. He showed me things I had no idea about. He showed me about a lot of myths, ’You can do this and do that’. He showed me you can’t [avoid good nutrition] but when you treat the body well...your body is almost like a car. It’s like a high-performance car. I’m like a Bugatti right now, a racing Bugatti and when you put the right fuel and the right oils and the right treatment in the car, it runs at high-level speeds."
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