On Daily Routines, we profile successful leaders, entrepreneurs, artists, executives and athletes to explore their routines, schedules, habits and day in the life.
“Edgar Berlanga Jr is the greatest power-punching phenomenon I’ve seen since the heyday of a young Mike Tyson,” tweeted Top Rank CEO Bob Arum last December, after he witnessed the 23-year old Brooklyn boxer demolish Ulises Sierra within the first round.
At a first glance, there’s bound to be a lot of eye-rolling when you read Arum’s tweet. I mean, really? The promoter of a boxer declares him the next big thing — what else is new? After all, this is the same promoter who called Vasiliy Lomachenko “the best fighter technically that I’ve seen since that early Ali.”
But taking a closer look at Berlanga’s boxing record to date, Arum might just be on to something. 16 fights, 16 wins, 16 knockouts. All within the first round. That’s a nice, clean number and it’s easy to get caught up in the hype.
In an interview with GQ, Berlanga broke down the daily training routine and diet that keeps him in shape for terrorising the super middleweight division.
On a typical training day Berlanga has two sessions — boxing work in the morning with his trainer (and uncle), Andre Rozier in Long Island and strength & conditioning in the evening with his coach, Dave “Scooter” Honig in Brooklyn. Berlanga also visits a physical therapist a few times throughout the week, “she works with on little things that I feel need to be tended to with my body.”
To fuel his training, Berlanga works with nutrition company Perfecting Athletes, who plan and coordinate all his meals for his week. A daily meal plan for him typically looks like this:
Since I train every day at 11:00, I’ll get up around nine and my girl makes me breakfast. It’ll usually be egg whites, onions, peppers, avocado and my coffee. From there, I’ll head to the boxing gym. I’m there from 11:00 to probably 2:30 just working. I’ll head back home to eat my meal. It depends on how I’m feeling, but often it’s quinoa with six ounces of beef or chicken and some sweet potatoes. I’ll usually have strength and conditioning with Scooter and that’s usually at 6:30 or 7 p.m. I like to use the gap in between to rest my body from a hard day of training. If I don’t finish the day working with Scooter, I’ll probably go back to the boxing gym or I’ll go for a run. It also depends on how I feel. I can probably do strength and conditioning three times a week but that can also be two or just once a week, depending on how hard I’m training and what I’m putting my body through at the gym. At the end of the day, a fighter knows his body the best and a fighter should know when it’s time for him to rest or take it easy because you can easily burnout. Dinner is usually something like salmon, with a salad with peppers, onions, avocado, Himalayan sea salt and an olive oil and vinegar dressing.
The Real-Life Diet of Boxer Edgar Berlanga, Who Gets Ready to Fight With Chocolate Chip Pancakes | GQ
On fight day and after the weigh-in, the Brooklyn boxer changes up his diet, prioritising lots of carbs and calories to ensure he has enough energy and the weight on him when he steps into the ring.
“Breakfast is usually homemade chocolate chip whole wheat pancakes. I love pasta, so five hours before the fight, it’s spaghetti with some ground meat,” he told GQ. “I love that because I feel like it gives me back the energy. About two hours before the fight, I’ll have a light snack, like some mixed fruit – something not too filling but enough to fuel me for the fight.
After the fight, Berlanga typically lets loose, hunting down chicken wings, burgers, milkshakes and pizzas as a reward for his hard work and discipline throughout training camp.
For me, I like to eat pizza. I love pizza, man. That’s my favorite. I love chicken wings and the sandwiches from the bodega. I have a specific store that I go to in Brooklyn. They’ve known me since I was seven years old and they make the best sandwiches in Brooklyn. I go there probably two times a week to get a sandwich. My favorite is the honey-glazed turkey with American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado with the bread toasted.
THE REAL-LIFE DIET OF BOXER EDGAR BERLANGA, WHO GETS READY TO FIGHT WITH CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES | GQ
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