What does Tyson fury eat to prepare for a world heavyweight title fight
Ahead of the big fight against Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas this weekend, leading coffee retailer Coffee Friend caught up with Tyson Fury's long-time nutritionist and chef George Lockhart for a look inside Fury's pre-fight diet.
Former US marine George, who has previously worked with Conor McGregor and is also a former MMA fighter himself. He explained exactly what he feeds Tyson pre-fight diet, which totals 5000 calories a day – packed full of fish, chicken, red meat and antioxidants – and revealed the importance of coffee to Tyson Fury, for performance, mental health and positive attitude and as as a social thing.
With so much at stake in this trilogy finale, every single factor makes a big difference, whether that's mindset, form, training camp or diet, there's no denying this is a big fight with a lot at stake. You might want to consider using a parlay calculator to hedge your bets.
George Lockhart: If Deontay Wilder makes it out of the third round I'll be shocked… Fury puts him away before that
"I have seen first hand in camp that Tyson Fury keeps on getting better and better. If I'm being honest, while I know Wilder is a big puncher – and this is a bold statement – if Wilder makes it out of the third round I'll be shocked. I truly believe Tyson Fury will put him away before that."
George Lockhart: Tyson consumes 5000 calories a day – one fish, one chicken, and one red meat throughout the day in each one of his meals
"First thing in the morning Tyson is definitely going to have a coffee with his breakfast and what he eats is dictated by the activities of the day. But one thing that’s constant every single day is he has: one fish, one chicken, and one red meat throughout the day in each one of his meals. It might go up and it might go down but he consumes about 5000 calories a day.
"He doesn’t have any cheat meals, he does not really crave anything. He also gets things like yoghurts and fruit bowls, so we give him tons of antioxidants. He gets those with the fruit but through the coffee as well, which is great at getting rid of pre-radicals. When you workout as much as Tyson does you create a lot of pre-radicals. We want to make sure we keep that stress down and keep him healthy.
"When you workout, your body creates a lot of negative material, you're stressing the body out, the pre-radicals is what our body releases when you work out, so when you ingest an antioxidant it actually gets rid of those pre-radicals. You can have an amazing car, put amazing fuel in it but if it’s got no exhaust system it’s going to break down. Antioxidants are basically what helps you stay younger, it helps with inflammation and helps you look younger. So coffee is a good antioxidant."
George Lockhart: Coffee 100% helps Tyson Fury in his fight preparations, both for performance and as a social thing
"Coffee absolutely helps Tyson Fury in his preparations, 100 percent. Tyson uses it for performance and for a social thing. Every morning when the guys get up, everyone in the team has a cup of coffee. Coffee is a huge deal to Tyson. Him and Sugar Hill bought this $1500 coffee machine, it’s insane. I thought all coffee tasted the same until I tried it. It helps him out with focus and energy levels.
"A lot of the time caffeine gets a negative connotation, but the National Strength & Conditioning Association did a study that said you can have 250mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. So you’ve got someone like Tyson who can ingest a lot of coffee in a day and it’s not going to have any negative repercussions.
"So like I said, it’s going to have a positive effect in terms of mental state; there’s studies that show it's going to give you a better, positive attitude. Though it’s important not to ingest caffeine eight hours before he goes to bed."
George Lockhart: Caffeine increases metabolism, focus and stamina… I'd rather athletes drink coffee than an energy drink
"Caffeine increases your metabolism, increases focus and can also increase your stamina and get you fired up. You can go longer and faster because your actual pain perception changes when you ingest caffeine.
"I’d prefer athletes to ingest caffeine through coffee rather than an energy drink or something like that because of water weight, something that has a lot of artificial sweeteners like an energy drink will create water weight. Coffee’s a great diuretic during camp.
"A lot of people don't actually know this but taking caffeine post-workout actually increases the amount of carbohydrates that’s converted to glycogen. A good workout shake would be some coffee and some protein."