BRITONS are often the underdogs when they travel to the United States for world title fights. On June 14 in New York, Blackpool’s Brian Rose similarly faces a huge challenge when he attempts to wrest the WBO lightmiddleweight crown from talented southpaw Demetrius Andrade. It means he has had to put in the hardest training camp of his life to prepare himself for this title chance. In his own words Brian describes his training regime:
NO COMPROMISES
I’m putting everything into this camp. I’m sacrificing so much because it’s a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. I’ve worked so hard to get to this time in my career and I don’t want to mess that up. I don’t want to get to 30, 40 years old and regret anything. So I’m going to put all the effort in I can and if that’s not good enough I’ll have no regrets. Not only do I sacrifice a lot but my trainer Bobby [Rimmer] sacrifices a lot. I’ve moved in with him now. I’ve moved out of my family home and I’ve moved into the flat with Bobby. It’s just something I’ve got to do. I’ve got a young son and as much as it is great being at home with him, he does keep me up on occasion and I just can’t afford to be in that position… Bobby cooks all my meals, he gets me up for my runs, everything Bobby does is around me. My missus doesn’t even do that for me!
ADAPTATION
I’ve just stepped it up a gear. It would be wrong for me to say that I need to change anything because I’ve got this far by doing the things I’ve been doing. I’ve been working with Sean Krool, a strength and conditioner who I worked with for the last fight. I don’t do as much running now, which works out better because I found out that was [the cause of] the problem with my back. I’ve had no problems with my back since I stopped the running, but I do a lot of conditioning and strength work with my legs, which is great.
THE WEEK
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I do all my sparring, all my padwork, all the graft, and do my strength and conditioning on the Monday, Wednesday, Friday, so they’re my harder days. Tuesday, Thursday, I do a circuit in the morning and either swimming or sprinting in the afternoon and then I finish off with the hill run on the Saturday morning, the only long-distance run I do. It’s called Dovestones. It’s pretty famous because all the Gallagher boys do it, we often see them doing the run. Terry Flanagan does it. A lot of good fighters do it, the proof is in the pudding, if there’s people doing it, it shows how good it is. The circuits are really intense. They last about 40 minutes, it doesn’t sound long but they are really intense… [It’s] punching the bag for a minute then on to an exercise, each a minute, alternating. It changes every time but it’s like burpees, press-ups, sit-ups, squats with a jump. It’s all high- intensity stuff. [For strength and conditioning he does] squats on a balance board, TRX cables, we do kettlebells, squats with kettlebells. By the end of that session I’m breathing so much more heavily than I would on a run, so it’s not only getting my cardiovascular [fitness], it’s also helping me strength-wise.
BE SPECIFIC
I’ve had nothing but southpaw sparring [for Andrade]. Every time we’re in the gym there’s a lad in with us who’s a southpaw, mimicking Andrade. So by the end of this fight I’ll find it hard to fight an orthodox fighter, I’m that used to a southpaw, thinking about what I need to do to beat a southpaw. That’s what I’ve been working on.
MASTER THE BASICS
The jab is the first thing that you need to learn. I think it’s your jab and your defence. It’s the obvious things, you need to throw your jab and turn it at the end and the timing needs to be there as well. It’s not just how you throw the shot, it’s your timing. I usually know when I’m going to hit someone with a jab and I usually know, when I’m just about to throw it, whether I’m going to miss. So you’ll pick that up as you learn the jab.
BEYOND THE JAB
My jab I’ve always relied on. But this time I can’t just rely on a jab, I’m fighting a world champion. There’ll be so many more shots coming into play and so many more things that I haven’t done in past fights but I’ll be doing in his fight. In sparring I’ve always made it easy for myself because I’ll do the things I’m good at, which is great but this time I’ve not just been able to do that. I’ve had to work on other things and master other things and take myself out of my comfort zone in sparring. I’ve had to be more aggressive, I’ve had to get around to the left more, I’ve had to throw a lot more right hands, right hand-left hooks. I’ve had to lead with the right hand, which is something I’ve never done. But it’s all stuff I’ve got used to and I’ve got six weeks to master it. I’m already there.
YOU CAN TRY
Sean Krool’s circuit with the bosu ball
LEGS
Put the bosu ball down on the flat side. Stand on top of the ball, drop your feet down to the floor on either side and do a squat jump right back on to the ball and into a squat. Beginner x10 Intermediate x15 Advanced x20
ARMS
Forearms on the bosu ball in the plank position and do an explosive push from your forearms up on to your hands. Walk arms back down, starting with the right and then the left on the next rep. Same repetitions as above.
CORE
Sit on ball, hands hold ball, legs stretch out in front of you, raise legs and drop slowly to floor. As you become more advanced keep your heels off floor, and then also progress to hands off the ball. Same repetitions as above.
