Exclusive Boxing Interview: Rendall Munroe

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Rendall Munroe arrived in Tokyo yesterday lunchtime and settled in straight away -meeting with media and getting on with training.

Leaving England Tuesday morning with his Dad – Alan, trainers Mike and Jason Shinfield along with nutritionist Hardip Singh, Munroe will spend the next ten days acclimatizing ahead of his World Title bid against Nishioka Toshiaki on the 24th October.

On Monday, SaddoBoxing visited Munroe at the Shinfield’s Gym in Somercotes, England for one last chat before the team left for Tokyo.

It was clear that Munroe was impatient to get to Tokyo and said he wasn’t look forward to packing. He had two empty cases waiting to be packed and I joked with him and Jason that they should tell me where the cases were so I could sneak inside!

“It’ll be big enough!”, Munroe laughed, “I went to buy a new suitcase and they brought out a small one, I told them no way – I need a BIG case!”

Munroe was having one last work-out at the gym and was looking in great shape, quicker and sharper than when I saw him last.

While he got changed, I chatted to his Dad – Alan, quietly watching from the side. Clearly very proud of his son – all he wanted (he told me) was for him to fulfill the dream he’d always pursued – ‘to be a World Champion’, “It’s so close now” Alan said, “He’s worked very hard to get this far – all I can do is support him as much as possible”.

We then laughed as Alan told me he’s not looking forward to the food out there, so I joked with the team that he would be taking packed lunches and a flask in his suitcase!

I then sat down to chat with Rendall for a while.

SaddoBoxing: I haven’t spoken to you about your training in Portugal ? Did you find that was a real benefit to your training?

Rendall Munroe: 100% ! I was out of my comfort zone. Three times of training a day (I do that here but it’s different out there obviously), the sessions are ‘broken up’.

I’d go for a good run out in the hills in the morning, in the afternoon go to the gym and do bag work / pad work, then later in the afternoon do conditioning work – abs and things like that. And they had a pool there as well so I did a lot of pool work.

I felt a lot different out there, it felt good. I said to Jay that hopefully after this ones won – we’ll go back out there for 2 weeks next time. So, yeah – I’d definitely consider doing that as part of my training from now on.

SB: You mentioned High Altitude training before…were you referring to the hill running in Portugal?

RM: Yes, the villa was far out in the hills, you could see for miles and the hill running helped. But I’ve had big support from Leicester City Football Club who loaned me a High Altitude Trainer to use at home. I used it for 2-3 weeks before I went out to Portugal.

Jay said he’d been out there before and noticed a difference (without doing any training) but I didn’t notice a difference – I felt normal. The environment was nice, the air was nice – it felt good out there.

The High Altitude Trainer that I used at home is a mask you wear for an hour – hour and a half in total (mask is on for 5 mins at a time) and it cuts the oxygen level down so it makes you feel like you’re at high altitude. There’s a device you wear on your finger which measures the oxygen levels in your body.

I was using it at 5700 feet and within the 5 minutes my oxygen level went down to 80% but within 2-3 minutes of taking the mask off – my levels were back up to 100% so it shows how quickly I recovered.

SB: It’s nice for you to have your Dad along supporting you, but we were just talking about the food out in Japan – what will you do about your food while you’re out there?

RM: I’m taking my Nutritionist (Hardip Singh) out there with me. I’m at the weight now and Harry says that everything is perfect. I use CNP products too so we’ll be taking some of those along for the journey and I like to take my steamer with me – so that’ll be in my case (!) I like to eat a lot of sweet potatoes – so I’ll have some of those in my case as well (!)

SB: I guess you’re at the stage now where you feel ready and just want to get on with the job?

RM: Definitely. I’ve done everything I need to do now – I’m super-fit, I’m super-strong, there’s not much more I can do now. It’s just a case of ‘ticking over’ in the gym to keep sharp and making sure I don’t get stale really.

SB: You’ll arrive Wednesday evening (Tokyo time) – will you take a couple of days off to get settled in?

RM: No – I’ll be getting straight to it. Jay said to forget about trying to change the body clock, train when we’re looking to fight. If I want to sleep – I’ll sleep ! Whether it’s day-time or night-time, if I want to sleep I’ll sleep. As long as between 7.30 pm – 10.30 pm their time – I’m training.

SB: What sort of training would you expect to do?

RM: Running and pad-work, nothing strenuous.

SB: What do you know of your opponent – have you watched any tapes of him?

RM: I’ve seen him, but I leave that stuff up to Jay, he tells me what I have to do to win. Everyone laughs because I say ‘if Jay tells me I need to hop on one leg to win the fight – then I’ll hop on one leg!’. We’ve been doing it this way for a long time now, I was ranked four now I’m No.1 in the World – it works for us.

SB: Apart from the altitude training, have you done anything else different to prepare for this fight/boxer?

RM: We’ve changed a few things. He’s a southpaw so we’ve had different sparring partners in, he’s fast – so we’ve been working on my speed.

One big benefit is that I went to the WBC Night of Champions in Cardiff. Toshioki was there, but I also spoke to Zab Judah. I’ve watched a lot of him (Judah), his fights and training styles.

I felt my hand-speed was a down-side for me so I spoke to him and he said that a lot of times he wears hand weights in his training, so I’ve been doing that in all my sessions up to now and there’s a lot of difference in my hand-speed now. So a few ideas from experienced guys pays benefits.

SB: Lastly, do you have a message for the fans?

RM: A big Thanks for all your support and I WILL be coming back with the World Title! And a big party in England when I get back! So Thank you to everyone for the support – it’s that which keeps me going.

SB: Well we’re looking forward to the party and we’re looking forward to you coming back the World Champ! Thanks Rendall.