In a fight of this magnitude, everything is scrutinized. Technique, strategy, sparring, weight, experience, the ability to handle pressure… but behind all of this lies another essential piece of the preparation: building a body capable of executing what will be asked of it over twelve rounds.
During Christian Mbilli’s training camps, this responsibility largely belongs to Philippe Gougeon, Christian’s strength and conditioning coach for the past seven fights.
With his showdown against Canelo Alvarez just a few weeks away, I wanted to speak with Philippe to explain what happens behind the gym doors: what changes for a fight of this magnitude, how the progress of a world-class athlete is truly measured, and how they make sure he arrives at the fight at the peak of his abilities… without getting there burned out.
Photo: David Becker – Christian Mbilli
Changing Without Changing Everything
You might think that facing Canelo requires completely reinventing Christian’s preparation. That’s not really the case. “Honestly, there are few differences compared to the last major fights,” Philippe explains.
The objective remains essentially the same: develop a strong, resilient athlete capable of sustaining high power output intervals over twelve rounds.
What changes over the years is rather the precision with which the training can be individualized.
Philippe has an interesting philosophy: during each camp, he introduces approximately 10 to 15% new training principles. It’s a way to experiment, evaluate and, eventually, keep what truly brings something to the athlete.
After seven fights with Christian, the data is beginning to speak. “I’m starting to have a good idea of what works better and what works less well, especially for an elite athlete who has 15 years of boxing in his body.”
And at this level, adding more doesn’t necessarily mean making more progress. For Philippe, the goal is instead to select his “sure things” in order to maximize performance while minimizing fatigue and the risk of injury. And that last part is probably just as important as the first.
Photo: Vitor Munhoz – Christian Mbilli
A Body That Needed Rest
It’s also important to understand what Christian was coming back from. The training camp he went through ahead of his first world championship fight against Maciej Sulecki had been extremely demanding. Just a few weeks later, he dove into another camp before waging a true war against Lester Martinez.
At a certain point, the best possible training simply becomes… rest. This break allows the body to absorb the demands of the previous months.
After this period of rest, when Christian returned to Montreal to begin this preparation, Philippe noticed something important: he was not deconditioned and wasn’t carrying the aches and pains that years spent in a gym often leave behind.
Eight weeks before the fight, his assessment was already very encouraging: “Christian is already at 90% of his physical capabilities, fresh and ready to go.”
The challenge, therefore, is not to start from zero, but rather to find the remaining 10% without sacrificing the freshness that could become extremely valuable as the fight approaches.
Photo: Vitor Munhoz – Christian Mbilli
Strength and Conditioning Must Serve Boxing
A question often comes up when discussing strength and conditioning: should it completely change depending on the opponent and game plan? Yes… and no.
Certain qualities can be emphasized depending on what Marc Ramsay and the team want to accomplish. But the major physical demands of a championship fight remain.
Philippe uses a rather amusing comparison to explain it: “Adjusting strength and conditioning to a strategy is a bit like cooking a good shepherd’s pie for several people with different tastes; you can change the type of potatoes, adjust the amount of corn, but at the end of the day, you still have to be able to serve a good shepherd’s pie that meets the standards.”
The image may bring a smile, but the principle is important. The strength and conditioning coach isn’t preparing a sprinter, a weightlifter, or a physical testing champion. He is preparing a boxer, and ultimately, the real test doesn’t take place in front of a stopwatch or a loaded barbell… It takes place in the ring.
The numbers tell a story. Sparring, however, tells the truth.
Philippe now has several years’ worth of data on Christian. He compares his muscular and cardiovascular results with those from previous camps. In particular, he monitors heart-rate recovery between intervals, speeds, the loads used, power output, rest periods, and the number of sets.
Photo: Vitor Munhoz – Christian Mbilli
Everything is compared against the best standards Christian has reached over the past three years. But numbers have their limits. “An athlete who improves in strength and conditioning isn’t necessarily an athlete who is progressing in the boxing gym.”
This is probably one of the most important points from our discussion, because a strength and conditioning coach can achieve extraordinary numbers during training sessions and still hurt the preparation if the athlete constantly arrives exhausted when it’s time to box.
That’s why communication between Philippe, Christian, Marc, and the other members of the team becomes essential.
Philippe likes to attend sparring sessions and tries to always be there. His background as an amateur boxing coach alongside Rénald Boisvert and Vincent Auclair gives him an additional perspective here. “The most important thing is definitely to attend the athlete’s sparring sessions, because that is what most closely resembles the performance on fight night.”
A sparring session allows you to see what no Excel spreadsheet can fully show.
Are the legs responding?
Is Christian maintaining his explosiveness?
Is his recovery between rounds good?
Does he remain clear-headed when the pace increases?
And above all: is he better this week than he was the week before?
Photo: Vitor Munhoz – Christian Mbilli
The Famous “Carbs”
Philippe also holds a bachelor’s degree in nutrition, and when asked which aspect of nutrition becomes particularly important during a camp of this intensity, his answer comes quickly: carbohydrates.
Christian can train twice in the same day. He therefore needs to be able to recover sufficiently after the morning session to produce another quality workout a few hours later. “Carbohydrates unfortunately still have a bad reputation despite themselves, but for an athlete, they are valuable allies when it comes to achieving greater output and better post-workout recovery.”
Nutrition during a camp is therefore not simply a matter of “eating clean” or losing weight. It must allow the athlete to perform, recover, and do it all over again, while at the same time, his weight must gradually come down toward a target determined before leaving for Saudi Arabia.
The goal is simple: avoid having an excessive weight cut in the final days ruin weeks of preparation.
There is then one final challenge: recovery after the weigh-in.
Fighting in Riyadh means being far from familiar routines and from his usual food environment. Philippe therefore plans to determine with Christian and Marc what will need to be brought on-site in order to control this crucial stage as much as possible. Once again, the principle is the same: eliminate as many variables as possible.
Photo: David Becker – Christian Mbilli
The Morning of the Fight
I ultimately asked Philippe a much less scientific question: If everything goes exactly as planned, how does he want Christian to feel when he opens his eyes on the morning of the fight?
His answer probably sums up his entire philosophy.
“I want Christian to feel like Marvin Hagler before his fight against Thomas Hearns: that nothing can intimidate or surprise him on fight night, because he will be in complete possession of his abilities.”
Not simply strong. Not simply fast. Not simply well-conditioned. Ready!
Ready physically to execute what will be asked of him from the first round to the twelfth. Ready without an injury that could prevent him from using the weapons he worked on throughout camp. And above all, with the conviction that everything that could have been done to prepare his body has been done.
This is probably where the true challenge of world-class physical preparation lies.
You can always do more. Add another set. Add another interval. Add another session. But the goal isn’t to win the training camp. The goal is for Christian Mbilli to be at his best on October 31, when he steps into the ring against Canelo.
