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Itauma has better strength numbers than AJ - but does this matter in the ring?
From the many strength and conditioning coaches I’ve interviewed as a fitness writer, the process of training an athlete seems similar to crafting a knife. First you have to make sure all the raw materials are there, then you can go about assembling them into a blade, and finally you can start sharpening the tool.
Similarly with training, before you can start fine-tuning an athlete, you first have to ensure all the necessary physical attributes are present; strength, speed, skill, power, muscle, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance and agility.
For this reason, boxers such as Daniel Dubois and even Jake Paul often start their pre-fight training camps with a strength-building phase, focusing on multi-muscle compound lifts like the bench press, squat and deadlift.
Rising heavyweight star Moses Itauma also trains these big three lifts, and in a 2024 interview with Notjustboxing he revealed the numbers he has hit on each.
“I’ve got good technique,” he prefaces. “[My] squat is 211kg, on the deadlift I did 270kg at the beginning of the year, but I did the trap bar at 300kg when I was 16. On the bench I’ve done 175kg… That’s not bad, is it?”
For context, Anthony Joshua’s squat reportedly topped out at around 200kg.
But how do these numbers translate to performance in the ring? On the face of it, given Itauma’s blemish-free 12-fight record, you would assume there is a positive correlation between the two. But some boxing coaches suggest otherwise – this is why.
Mark Robinson/Matchroom
Does strength training benefit boxers?
Yes, strength training can build the strength, muscle and robust body a boxer requires to excel, but there needs to be nuance in how it is implemented. This is because strength is not the only physical trait a boxer depends on for success.
“A boxer isn’t like a powerlifter; someone who has to produce high amounts of force with no time constraints to get from point A to point B,” explains Matchroom Boxing’s head of performance Dan Lawrence. “Boxing has an element of that; force production is important, as we know force times velocity equals power.
“But we also need to produce that force very quickly because we are under time constraints. That’s the difference between landing a shot and not landing a shot.”
For this reason, rather than relentlessly chasing a squat, deadlift or bench press PB, many boxing strength and conditioning coaches have their athletes lift sub-maximal loads for several reps, focusing on generating as much speed and power as possible.
Added bulk cannot come at the expense of mobility or manoeuvrability either – in the simplest terms, more mass is harder to move, and a heavier fighter needs higher fitness levels to stay light on their feet throughout the full 12 rounds when necessary. All muscle must serve a purpose, rather than simply existing for aesthetic purposes.
Why strength and conditioning isn’t the priority for boxers
Strength and conditioning is a crucial part of any professional fighter’s preparations nowadays. But in every camp I have visited or spoken with, it is not the priority.
“With boxing, it’s still in the dark ages where people are like, ‘Don’t lift heavy weights, it will slow you down’,” Moses Itauma’s strength and conditioning coach Jordan Vine says. “But if you know how to do it, and when to do it, it can add to your boxing.”
“Boxing is boxing,” Daniel Dubois’ trainer Don Charles told me in the lead-up to his Oleksandr Usyk rematch. “You obviously need all the other parts to allow the athlete to work at their best, but when you undress it all, what you have left standing there is the boxing and boxing technique.”
For this reason, after an initial strength-building phase, Dubois’ fight preparations saw him wind back his strength training to two or three weekly sessions, each lasting no longer than 45 minutes.
During these sessions, Dubois transitions from lower-rep strength work on compound exercises to explosive movements and heart rate-spiking circuits, his strength and conditioning coach and Champ Performance founder Samuel Otti says.
“When it’s time for sparring, you start to offload – you don’t want to slow him down,” Charles adds. “He’s already built the body. You want him to be loose and explosive.”
Boxing-specific strength coach Larry Wade, who has trained the likes of Shawn Porter, Caleb Plant, Badou Jack, Rolando Romero and most recently Jake Paul, employs a similar approach.
Leigh Dawney/Queensberry
“[With my athletes] we have pre-camp and then we have camp,” he says. “In pre-camp, this is when we do an evaluation to see how guys are physically, from a strength and conditioning standpoint. I just want to see what your baseline is.
“I am not a bench press guy; I don’t really believe in it outside of [assessing] baseline strength. But I will use it in a pre-camp setting to see if someone is strong in relation to their size.”
Wade estimates Jake Paul, as an example, would be able to bench press 350lb (just shy of 160kg), but says he has had no reason to ask him to max out the lift recently.
“[The bench press] can cause limitations from a punch standpoint, and we want athletes to be as elastic and as strong as possible,” he adds.
Why strength training is important for boxers
While strength training falls behind developing boxing technique in the pecking order, it still plays an important role in whether or not an athlete has their arm raised when fight night rolls around.
Oleksandr Usyk is a good case study for this. He has enlisted the help of strength and conditioning coach Jakub Chycki, an associate professor at The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, to prepare for recent fights. And the decision has paid dividends.
Chycki’s expertise has seen Usyk adopt an evidence-based training regime which utilises forward-thinking techniques such as plyometrics, velocity-based lifting and reactivity training, as well as tried and tested techniques like air bike conditioning sessions and heavy lifting.
This has complemented Usyk’s already-undeniable boxing ability. The result? He is once again the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
Do strength numbers matter for Moses Itauma?
With all this said, I have no concerns about Moses Itauma’s mobility, manoeuvrability or conditioning. Anyone who has seen him in the ring is likely to have a similar viewpoint – there is a reason why he has set myriad tongues wagging as a heavyweight prospect.
To hit the strength numbers he did requires an exceptional blend of hard work and genetics, and Itauma clearly has both.
In the same Notjustboxing interview, he goes on to reveal that he has a 5K PB of 20min 50sec, a 10K PB of 45min and a half-marathon PB of 1hr 50min. The last of these was on a whim.
“During Covid I was pretty bored,” he says. “I live close to the Noakes brothers, [fellow boxers] Sam and Sean Noakes, and they were like, ‘Why don’t we jump on a half-marathon?’ It just happened.”
He is a supreme athlete, boasting not only strength but also speed, power, composure and technical skill – all of which make him a formidable opponent, whether you are in the gym or in the ring.
Watch Itauma vs Whyte live on DAZN
You can watch Moses Itauma vs Dillian Whyte live on DAZN on August 16. More information is available here.
