Issue 187

January 2020

The veteran heavyweight on working harder than ever in the gym, but having his family for company 

In preparation for the recent Roy Nelson fight you worked with Game Changer Sports. You even went as far as having to carry your own vomit out of the gym. What have you gained from working with Game Changer and everything they have you doing there?

(Laughs) That’s one aspect of the training that they really exposed me to! I have trained with guys like Mark who really understand power and speed and explosion. I have also trained with great endurance guys. I have never correlated the two. OK, on Monday we are going to work power and Tuesday we are going to work endurance. I have always thought they were different energy systems and I have always worked them separately.

At Game Changer, Mel has me doing a lot of explosive workouts and we are doing them for an hour and a half at a time. There are times when I have my friends train with me – misery loves company, after all. Austin Aries, the pro wrestler, he is in great shape, man. He does fucking backflips off the cage without even warming up. He will come in and work out with me and he will look at me like “We have to do another set?’ I’m like ‘I know it’s crazy, right?’ I can’t believe we are going to do this much power and explosion constantly. 

My explosive endurance, my ability to be explosive over a period of time, has never been greater than it is right now. I never understood how to work it before. In past camps, guys never worked it together. I would either be doing an endurance kettlebell workout or an explosive, box-jumping, hurdle-hopping workout. I have never done workouts where I do box jumps for five five-minute rounds. I’m like ‘Is that humanly possible?’ Then you are going to do burpees in between rounds. That will be your break. Dude, I thought we were friends. Get 911 ready. You are going to kill me. It was about the first two weeks where I didn’t make it out of a practice without vomiting. I would vomit, start to pass out and see stars. When people come in a watch me their mouth drops. I know! And he isn’t even asking you to do it! Imagine how I feel.

You have spent decades in the gym as a professional athlete. Now you are sharing that time with your kids. How amazing is it to be able to share those experiences with your family?

You have to realize, my dad was in my corner for this fight with Roy Nelson. My dad was my first trainer. He still comes to the gym and helps me. He has a full-time job. I have trainers and that’s all they do, so he has very much been a part of my life. I am doing what my father taught me growing up in the martial arts. Now I get to teach it to my children. Even my two boys, they like jiu-jitsu and they love wrestling but they don’t strike me as wanting to be fighters. They are really enamored with football. The sun rises and sets with football. I get to be in the gym with them and understand that they still have a passion about certain stuff. Being there and hanging out as a family on a Sunday, we were lifting even on Sundays. The lifting was more for strength, so you could lift more often. We would take Saturdays off and go to the gym on Sundays. 

So, not like ordinary family activities at the weekend?

Other families are all at home sitting on the coach looking at their iPhones. My family is at the gym squatting. My two oldest are with me. My youngest is up playing basketball. My wife is over there with a couple of her girlfriends working out. I look over and realize my children are here. I am working out with my kids. That honestly has probably rejuvenated me more than anything else. For a while there fighting got really stagnant. Train for a fight and go fight. If you do anything for long enough it gets old. Having my children be a part of it has really made it fun again. I’m not the first one that wants to get out of the gym. I did the workout. I did A, B and C. I’m leaving. I’m done. I’m going home. Now I sit there for forty five minutes talking and hanging out with everyone. We are pulling up YouTube videos, talking about training. My son will do some strength feat and we will all see if we can do it. It’s just fun. It’s a lot of fun.