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By Steve Kim (Sep 20, 2006)
About a month ago, during a 'Solo Boxeo' telecast on Telefutura, a special feature was done on Erik Morales - who in preparation for his November 18th rubbermatch against Manny Pacquiao at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas was going through a series of strength and conditioning drills designed to put him in optimum fitness as he pares down to 130 pounds.
It just didn't look right. Morales, who in many ways is the definition of your tough, hard-nosed, old-fashioned Mexican fighter, looked out-of-place in a modern training facility, lifting weights, doing plyometrics and doing 'core' exercises.
But after losing three of his last four bouts, and getting stopped by Pacquiao in his last outing, it was clear that Morales had to evolve when it came to his workout regimen. 'El Terrible', who's known for blowing up in weight and then struggling to come back down, has spent the last couple of months in Los Angeles under the supervision of Velocity Personal Training.
And get this, like that little kid, Mikey, from the old Life Cereal commercial, he liked it, he really, really liked it.
“It’s really been good, it's nothing too hard, nothing too easy," he would say through Top Rank publicist Ricardo Jimenez at Tuesday afternoon’s press conference at the Beverly Hills Hotel to officially announce his next battle. "It's always good to learn. You see a lot of things you've never seen before. It was something new and I enjoyed it."
Last September, Morales would fail to even make the lightweight limit and proceeded to get outboxed by Zahir Raheem. Then in the Pacquiao rematch - which took place at 130 pounds - after a strong start, he would fade late and get overwhelmed in ten rounds.
“All I know is he really had to do something about his physical conditioning," said his promoter, Bob Arum. "We recommended that he go to Velocity Personal Training and he is ecstatic with what the results have been."
According to Arum, like many veteran fighters, Morales resisted something he felt was so radical.
“Absolutely, because again, he wasn't fully aware of what these guys could do. He made conditions; he didn't want them to interfere with his boxing. But within the first week he realized how beneficial this program was. For example, for five years he's had problems with his right shoulder. Within two weeks, that was gone."
After today’s press conference, Morales and his team - which will include members of the Velocity staff - were scheduled to go back to the Otomi Mountains in Mexico to begin the boxing portion of their preparations.
When asked what his fighter was weighing currently, Arum guessed: "Probably about 16, 17 pounds over the limit. He hasn't started sparring or anything so I think the next couple of weeks he'll probably be in the 130's and then to make weight will be easy."
And he'll have a great incentive to reach the jr. lightweight limit.
“The contract provides that if he's over, it's $500,000 for each pound or fraction that he's over," explained Arum. "So I'm not guaranteeing anything, but there's not going to be a problem with the weight."
Arum just happens to promote Jose Luis Castillo, who was scheduled to be in his own rubbermatch versus Diego Corrales this past June, but didn't come anywhere close to making the lightweight limit of 135 pounds. This, after not making weight in his rematch against Corrales last October. For his actions, Castillo was fined a quarter-million dollars and suspended the rest of 2006.
All this after Castillo and his handlers had assured everyone that he would come in as a 135-pounder.
“You can't rely on these trainers, particularly the Mexican trainers," said Arum, when asked if anything was learned from that snafu. "They have a way that they bring a guy in and the last few days they take off like eight pounds. That's absurd. You don't do that anymore. And they screwed up Castillo losing weight because they panicked and that's never going to happen again."
Jon Jon Park, the training director for Velocity Personal Training, says that Morales was a relatively quick convert to his new workouts.
“We’ve dealt with this before," he said, "and I must say that Erik had his own ideas, but he's been very, very compliant and he's been willing to give it a go; this is a whole new system of training to him. I have to say that he's been a pleasure to work with. He's been very dedicated and he's followed everything to a tee."
Park describes their goal, thusly: "There are several components. The first thing is we have to make sure in order for his weight, he does so in a fashion whereby he's not cannibalizing muscle or sacrificing good quality weight to get there, which is so prevalent in the boxing community with anyone under the heavyweight category. They starve themselves to make weight, they dehydrate themselves, and by the time that they make weight, by the time they step into the ring, they're totally dehydrated and exhausted and they've cannibalized a lot of muscle to get there.
“So our whole program is to ensure that that he doesn't sacrifice muscle, he keeps his strength up and the weight he loses is not quality weight but excess fluid and excess body weight."
As for what exercises are utilized, Park says, "A little bit of everything," with plyometrics, core strengthening drills, running and the old boxing taboo - weight training.
Which Park clarifies by explaining, "In terms of actual weight training, per se, I wouldn't say it's in the general terms that people know weight training, such as bench pressing or barbell squats, things of that nature. Because the object with Erik is not necessarily to put on mass but to get to his weight. So we didn't want to put on a lot of muscle because losing muscle is very, very difficult.
“So it was matter of just keeping what he had, making sure that it was strong and even stronger."
Morales worked with the Velocity team six days a week (his off-day being Sunday), switching between cardiovascular and interval running every other day, followed by a resting period where he would eat a meal and consume supplements, followed by a strength training workout, which took approximately an hour.
Workouts such as these are common in the other major sports. But boxing has been painfully slow to adapt and to utilize advances in research and technology. Boxing may not subscribe anymore to eating four raw eggs for breakfast, followed by monotonous roadwork in construction boots, a session at the gym and a dinner of steak and potatoes at night, but it's only step or two from that.
“I’ll put my head on the line and say this," proclaims Park, "that quite frankly, I think in ten years time if the boxers, especially the Latin boxers, if they train like they do now, they're not going to last. Because just like any other sport, it's evolved to such a degree. I don't think there's any top athlete in the world today that's not doing weight training. Unfortunately, they still have this archaic thinking that weight training slows you down.
“Well, it depends on how you do the weight training, number one. Number two, there's never been any physiological evidence that weight training slows you down. A perfect example is you look at the physique of a 100-meter runner, these guys in six months, they could enter a body-building competition. These guys are the fastest guys in the world with all that muscle. So there's no question that weight training can not only enhance your power, but enhance your speed. Because what it does in fact - if done correctly - is build white-fiber, which is your explosive fiber. And that's exactly what a boxer needs."
Velocity Personal Training, which is located in West Los Angeles, has a diverse clientele that includes figures in the entertainment world and business professionals to plain ol' housewives. And it does have boxing experience.
“We trained (Oscar) De La Hoya for nine fights, he was undefeated," Park said. "He went through some changes and he decided no longer to use our program. He then lost four fights. He didn't do any weight training, he changed everything. So I think the proof is in the pudding at the risk of sounding conceited."
Fernando Beltran, who represents both Morales and Castillo, is impressed enough by what he's seen that he would recommend that Castillo work with this organization.
“Absolutely," he states, "because Jose Luis Castillo is not going to fight until January. So I don't want him to be resting and gain so much weight."
Morales said at the presser that his battles versus the scales were adversely affecting his recent performances in the ring.
“We always have a hard time anyways getting into that weight division. So it’s always been tough, but I think we're well prepared now. I think it's going to be one of those times that we're really well prepared to go inside and do our work."
While Velocity has built up his white-fibers, there's never been a need to build up his heart and courage. But with his recent skid, he knows that for the first time in his storied career, he is being severely doubted.
"There's been so much talk from their side," said Morales of Pacquiao and his team, "about how I'm done, I'm going to retire and all that, and I think people hear that and maybe (they think), 'he is done.' But I know I'm not. I know that this is a great opportunity for me to show everybody what I can do."