Greatest Ever Boxing Workouts - including Mike Tyson, Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, Roberto Duran. Gary Todd
many days did you train? Six days. Saturday off.
Did you have a job before you won the world title? Yes, I was a groundsman at Melbourne airport.
BARRY MICHAEL’S WORKOUT
WARM-UP: ten minutes.
SKIPPING: 15 minutes, non-stop.
SPARRING: work up from six rounds to 15 rounds. (Three sparring partners, always hard and fast.)
SPEED BAG: two x three minutes.
HEAVY BAG: two x three minutes.
FLOORWORK: sit-ups, leg raises, crunches. 300 total.
SHADOWBOXING: ten minutes non-stop.
(At the weekend, I occasionally ran 15 to 20 kilometres. Everything I did in the gym was hard and fast.)
Country: USA
Date of birth: 15 June 1937
Wins: 62 (30 KOs)
Losses: 14
Draws: three
WBA Welterweight Champion of the World
WBC Welterweight Champion of the World
No doubt about it, Curtis Cokes was a busy fighter. Boxing all across America, he racked up an impressive record and learned his trade along the way.
In 1966, he won the vacant WBA Welterweight title from Manuel Gonzales and, later in the year, added Jean Josselin’s WBC world title, with both championship fights going the full 15 rounds.
He would defend his titles – travelling to France, South Africa and Mozambique – until 1969, when he took on challenger Jose Napoles. The Cuban-born Napoles was a tremendously gifted fighter, and Cokes was hammered into submission over 13 rounds by his combination punching.
As if once was not enough, the two fighters met again and this time the new champion was even more devastating, finishing Cokes in ten rounds.
Cokes continued to fight on, but his gruelling career – 14 hard years in the ring, with sometimes as many as nine fights in a year – had finally caught up with him. He kept going the distance in more ways than one, with his last few fights going to the scorecards and also being fought in South Africa.
Curtis Cokes finally hung up the gloves in 1972.
CURTIS COKES’ TYPICAL DAY
What time did you get up in the morning to run? 6:00am.
Did you stretch before you ran? Yes.
How far did you run? Five miles (at seven-minute miles).
After your roadwork, what did you do? Had some juice, then slept until noon.
What did you have for breakfast? No breakfast.
What time did you go to the gym? Around 12:00.
What time did you leave the gym? Around 2:00pm.
What did you do after training? I ate: steak, eggs and vegetable soup, 3:00pm. I had two meals a day.
Did you have any hobbies or interests? I liked to play golf, and I liked the movies.
What did you have for your dinner? 7:00pm, I had chicken, salad – light meal.
What did you do after dinner? I watched a movie and relaxed.
What time did you go to bed? 10:00pm.
What was your favourite exercise in the gym? Skipping.
How many days did you train? Six days, Sunday off.
Before you won the world title, did you have a job? Yes, I was a bank worker.
CURTIS COKES’ WORKOUT
SHADOWBOXING: four x three minutes (working on ideas).
SPEED BAG: three x three minutes.
SPARRING: four rounds, working up to 15 rounds.
FLOORWORK: sit-ups – 50 up to 200; leg raises – 50 up to 150; pushups – 50.
NECK EXERCISES: rotate neck around then side to side, loosening up.
SKIPPING: 15 minutes.
NOTE: these fighters fought regularly, so they were always fighting fit; this was the era of 15 rounds.
Country: Australia
Date of birth: 9 March 1973
Wins: 27 (24 KOs)
Losses: three
OKA Light Heavyweight Champion
OPBF Super Middleweight Champion
IBF Pan Pacific Super Middleweight Champion
IBO Cruiserweight Champion of the World
When Danny Green was disqualified in his WBC Super Middleweight Championship bout against Marcus Beyer in 2003, I was filled with mixed emotions. While watching this brutal fight, one minute my heart was pounding as fast as Green’s wild hooks, then the next minute I was in a state of disbelief and sadness for him.
Many people have criticised him for fighting the wrong fight that night, in Nurburg, Germany, but I didn’t see it that way at all. In fact, I think it was the best performance of his career.
Green, by nature, is a warrior, and he went into the fight as a feared and dangerous unbeaten challenger. He was fighting on foreign soil and knew he had to win by knockout, to take the German’s belt back to Australia.
That night he could have beaten anyone in the world. He was a wrecking machine who was programmed to fight the only way he knew how, but he was so focused and fired up inside that he forgot the rules.
But what a fight, and what a devastating performance!
Without doubt, 2003 saw Green’s finest hours in the ring. Later on that same year, he demolished the experienced former world champion Eric Lucas over five one-sided rounds, with the Canadian champion quitting in the sixth. Green simply overwhelmed