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How Joshua Buatsi overhauled his training camp to bounce back from first career loss
Joshua Buatsi suffered his first professional loss in February when he was beaten by fellow Brit Callum Smith. The pair went the distance before Smith was declared victorious via unanimous decision.
But Buatsi did not take the loss sitting down – far from it. He and his team went away and got to work, securing a return fight against Zach Parker then overhauling his training camp to ensure the best version of Buatsi steps into the ring on Saturday, November 1.
“[This] training camp has been very different,” he tells DAZN cameras. “We’ve come back, we’ve reset, we’ve taken different approaches, we’ve added things, we’ve removed things – the grind is non-stop.
“On November 1 against Parker, the statement is just to let people know that, ‘Look, I’m still that guy chasing the dream of getting to the top’. We had a slip-up in February, but we’re back on track now.
“I will fight; I will entertain; I will do whatever I have to do to make sure I come out on top.”
Buatsi himself says a lot has changed for this latest training camp. Below, we dive into what we know about his training techniques.
Mindset
“Gain control of your mind,” Buatsi commands. “Once your mind decides what it’s doing, your body will do it.
“Coach said a quote the other day: ‘You have to be battle hard’. When you say battle hard and be tough, people think of your hands, but he says: ‘Nah, you have to be battle hard in your mind first, then with your hands.’”
Running
Buatsi spars three times per week and runs three times per week. A video shared by Daily Mail Boxing shows the athlete rising before dawn to hit stair sprints with his team.
“We run in the morning, then we come and spar,” he told the site. “The aim is to kill you before sparring.”
Weighted jump rope
In most of Buatsi’s training footage, he can be seen skipping with a thick, heavy rope under the watchful eye of coach Virgil Hunter.
At one point in the video above, an exhausted Buatsi stops skipping. “It’s hard,” he says through laboured breaths.
“Do you want to stop it because it’s hard, or do you want to keep it up until you can do 100?” Hunter asks. At this, Buatsi walks back to the rope and begins again.
“I’m a very good student,” the fighter says. “If you tell me, ‘This is the programme and this is what we’re doing,’ I’ll do it.
“Boxing is one of the very few things where, if you tell me, ‘Josh, you need to jump 200 times’, I’m going to do 200.
“And if, after 200, you tell me you mixed it up and it was 202, I’m going to do two more.”
Skipping has always been a favourite among boxers, building cardiovascular endurance, coordination, rhythm and robustness through the knee and ankle joints. Making the rope heavier ups the intensity – what’s harder, picking up a 10kg dumbbell or a 50kg dumbbell – to deliver greater training adaptations, and bonus perks such as muscular endurance in the upper body.
Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing
Use of specialist equipment
Hunter’s California gym contains a ring surrounded by a wide range of equipment. Some of this will be easily recognisable to gym-goers, while other items are more obscure.
Paramount among them is the Keiser functional trainer. This machine has two handles attached to a pair of movable arms via retracting cables.
The machine’s USP is: “Any load, any speed, any plane.” It is designed for versatility, allowing you to apply cable-resistance to any movement you might be doing. This is handy for boxers, particularly when they are looking to strengthen the shoulder joint.
In boxing, the shoulder is placed under demands alien to the average Joe. It has to absorb the impact of punches, throw powerful shots and retract rapidly to resume a solid defensive position. In the process, it will also be exposed to all manner of awkward positions.
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From what can be seen in his training videos, it appears Hunter uses the Keiser functional trainer to have Buatsi access these positions under load in a controlled environment, building up the necessary strength in the joint to swerve injuries and perform come fight night.
Another inclusion in Hunter’s gym is the reverse hyper machine – created by legendary strength coach and Westside Barbell founder Louie Simmons.
The machine features a flat pad at roughly sternum height, and a weighted pendulum that hangs underneath. Athletes lie face down on the pad and attach their feet to the pendulum with a couple of straps, then raise their legs behind them until they are roughly in line with their torso.
A regular fixture in Oleksandr Usyk’s training for his Daniel Dubois rematch, this machine is second to none for strengthening the lower back, as well as other muscles that make up the posterior chain – the muscles that run along the back side of your body.
“From the fighter that has a stronger erector muscle for throwing punches out of his dominant stance, to the person that spends hours seated at a desk, we all want to avoid lower back pain,” an article on the Westside Barbell website reads.
“The reverse hyper helps for strength training, prehab, rehab and to strengthen the posterior chain for increased athletic performance."
Watch Buatsi vs. Parker live on DAZN
Joshua Buatsi vs. Zach Parker is live on DAZN this Saturday night, November 1. Watch the fight and whole card with a DAZN subscription.
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